


The Beginning of the Brook

by CallisaRose



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, Attempted Murder, Aurors, Enemies to Lovers, Humor, Implied/Referenced Sex, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Minor Character Death, Panic Attacks, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-25
Updated: 2020-09-25
Packaged: 2021-03-07 03:01:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 22,991
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26459887
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CallisaRose/pseuds/CallisaRose
Summary: Prompt: Aurors Chanyeol and Baekhyun are on a mission to track down the most dangerous criminal that would threaten the safety of the wizarding worldAKA- Exploding houses, office shenanigans, and punishment paperwork drag Chanyeol, Baekhyun, and their friends into one hell of an adventure.
Relationships: Byun Baekhyun/Park Chanyeol, Do Kyungsoo | D.O/Kim Jongin | Kai, Kim Jongdae | Chen/Zhang Yi Xing | Lay
Comments: 23
Kudos: 72
Collections: EXOventure Round 1 2020





	The Beginning of the Brook

**Author's Note:**

> Mods Bellatrix and Regulus are saints. This fic wouldn't be here without their patience, kindness, and support. Thank you both millions
> 
> Please heed tags and warnings. Nothing is too extreme, but there are panic attacks and a torture scene written in. They're not horribly detailed, but it's better to be safe than sorry, right? Promise there's humor throughout though- this shouldn't be a heavy read!
> 
> Prompter- THANK YOU!! I fell in love with this prompt and through the last hectic months, this fic has been a real escapist dream. I hope I didn't forget anything you asked for.
> 
> Thank you Mich, darling, for being the best beta. And to rest of my hype squad. Y'all are amazing. Any typos are my own. I'll hopefully catch them in the next few days.

Chanyeol dodged the hex, throwing a quick shield around himself while he recovered his stance. The spells flying at him were worse than what he usually encountered. It was during situations like these when he truly understood why their training had been so rigorous. Beside him, his partner swore. Jongin hadn’t joined the Auror Force for glory or adrenaline, he wanted peace. Chanyeol wanted justice. His own brows furrowed as Jongin’s counter curse hit its mark. They pressed their advantage swiftly, incapacitating their opponents. 

For such an aggressive duel it had ended quite suddenly. Chanyeol looked around warily. Nothing seemed out of place as Jongin carefully, gently bound their unconscious captives. He sent a Patronus off to their boss in the DMLE. They knew the drill. These three would be under the Imperius Curse and granted a pardon. As their actions weren’t truly theirs, even Chanyeol had to agree with the lack of sentence. They would also be questioned about the one who had cursed them. They wouldn’t know anything. 

Their department had dealt with at least six cases exactly like this one in the last nine months; a few muggles hospitalized who had seen too much and a group of Imperiused witches and wizards in a remote house. The puppets never knew anything, and the one pulling their strings never slipped up or came forward. He and Jongin had cleared out two of these houses themselves now. 

“Is it just me, or did this set go down easier than the last?”

Chanyeol sighed, it still didn’t feel right to him either. “No, they definitely did.”

Jongin glided over to the rickety staircase. “We really should clear upstairs. This lot aren’t going anywhere.”

Chanyeol chuckled, “Jongin Kim, goody two shoes extraordinaire, wants to break protocol and allow our captives from our line of sight? Why I ought to report you, officer.”

“Oh sod off, you want to get home just as much as I do.”

While that was true, Chanyeol still felt uneasy about how quickly things had turned in their favor in the duel. He wasn’t letting his guard down for a moment. “Let’s just wait, curse breakers will be here soon enough. May as well let them feel useful.” 

Due to the nature of the reoccurring cases, the Head Auror had insisted that curse breakers come through and rid the houses of residual dark magic and any traps set. They hadn’t found anything truly nasty, but their boss wasn’t taking any chances. 

Jongin sighed and began pacing slowly around the lower level. The floorboards creaked beneath his feet and dust motes floated in the late afternoon sun. Chanyeol conjured up a stool and sank onto it. Keeping his wand trained on their captives. He didn’t fancy the floor – butt splinters weren’t worth the dramatic effect of sliding miserably down the wall. Chanyeol watched his partner examine the current the dust was dancing upon. There seemed to be a cross breeze coming from the closet. 

Wait, the closet? That couldn’t be right. Jongin seemed to have the same concern because he cautiously crept closer to the offending door, tracking the source of the breeze. Chanyeol didn’t like that. There should not be a draft coming through that door. He wanted to warn Jongin to keep away from it, but he felt a bit separate from the situation. As if he was one of the dust particles floating around.

They had seen the blueprints of this building before today’s mission. The closet was beside the powder room. They both backed up to the kitchen. No reason for there to be a draft coming through. He tried to call out for Jongin to stop and must have made some noise because he halted for a moment and blinked slowly at Chanyeol. 

His eyes were glazed, far less focused than they should have been. This was wrong. There was something very wrong. _He had to keep Jongin’s attention._ Nearly as soon as the thought floated through his mind, he noticed a subtle sheen in the air. He looked around, hoping to identify the source. _needing_ to identify the source. The air seemed densest, shiniest by their captives. 

He made to stand, investigate. That was his job, after all. Investigate. Protect. Protect? Jongin! He looked up just in time to see Jongin reach the closet. He watched in slow motion as his partner reached for the handle, his head tipped in curiosity, eyes vacant. The door swung open. For half a heartbeat, Chanyeol believed it would be okay. But then a blinding whip-like flash struck Jongin. In an instant, the fogginess in his mind receded. He felt hyper aware, watching Jongin fall to ground without so much as a cry. He felt the explosion rip through the house nearly before it happened. He saw the ceiling above him give way. 

“PROTEGO” he bellowed. The last thing he felt was pain racing from his back through his body.

*+*+*+*+*+*+*

Chanyeol shifted. He was warm, groggy. Somewhere in the nearby vicinity he heard the scraping of a quill on parchment. He began to tense and release his muscles, small movements that would give him an idea as to his physical wellbeing. He was sore, certainly. However, everything seemed to be functioning fine. There were no restraints preventing movement, so he deduced that he was safe. At St. Mungo’s, then.

He slowly blinked his eyes open, squinting against the light filling the room. There was a Healer checking their notes against the roll of parchment at the foot of his bed. The beds beside him were empty. Panic gripped him as he realized Jongin should be here with him. Should be in one of the other beds in the ward reserved for Aurors. But he wasn’t. His partner who had reached out for something dangerous wasn’t here. The Healer looked at him when he tried to swing his legs off the bed.

“Auror Park, you need to stay here. If you need to use the restroom, let me assist you.”

Chanyeol glared. This Healer was obsessed with hospital policy and upholding the rules. They didn’t get along well. He wasn’t the most reckless Auror in the division— that was his friend Jongdae— but he did end up in hospital far more often than most. So he knew the St. Mungo’s staff well. To be fair, Jongin wasn’t as level-headed as everyone liked to pretend he was. At least a third of Chanyeol’s hospital visits were because he’d been protecting his partner. Which he hadn’t been able to do at the house… 

Guilt and anger rushed through him. If Jongin wasn’t here, he was either in a specialized ward or… dead. Chanyeol felt nauseous. If his poor reaction time or stupid distraction had gotten his partner killed… he had to know. Even if that meant he had to check every bed in this damned hospital for him, that’s what he would do. Any other Healer would likely have just told him, they understood how attached Aurors were to their partners. They were human enough to ease their minds. But this one… they wouldn’t tell him that Jongin was alive even if he was snoring in the bed beside him. 

“I have to find my partner, I’ll be back.” Chanyeol struggled to move his sore body from the bed but collapsed the moment he tried to stand. The Healer glared down at him, then helped him back into bed, practically forcing him back under the blanket. Chanyeol struggled to fight the blanket off and stand again. 

“He isn’t here,” they said. As if that would answer the burning questions in his mind. As if that didn’t make him fear the worst. He could feel the panic setting in before the Healer gave him a sympathetic look, “Auror Kim is in a private room on the fourth floor that you won’t have access to anyway. Now stop struggling and let me do my job, Auror Park.”

Chanyeol blinked. That was new. He looked suspiciously up at the Healer now running diagnostic spells, checking his vitals and scribbling results on the parchment. They weren’t behaving suspiciously per se… but telling him where Jongin was without even fighting about it first meant that Jongin was either seriously ill or the Healer had been bewitched. 

They rolled their eyes at him but elaborated, “We don’t know what he was hit with, but we will need you to answer some questions to help us work it out. Someone would have told you where he was eventually.” They tapped the bracelet around his wrist and it turned tangerine— _Observation Required_

“Really?” Chanyeol knew for a fact that he wasn’t injured enough to require someone staying with him. Besides, the new color clashed horribly with his red hair.

“The potion used to subdue you will be in your system for another 17 hours at least. You’ll be prone to recklessness and disorientation. More so than usual. Now lay down, and drink this.”

Chanyeol knew when he was outmatched. With a sigh he sunk onto his pillows and accepted the potion the Healer handed over. “So, how’d we ingest a potion if we didn’t drink anything?”

“It was a gaseous potion, Auror Park. I was under the impression that Aurors had to take N.E.W.T. level Potions.” The Healer peered down their nose at him. “Surely you must be aware then that the fumes of certain potions can be used in place of oral ingestion?”

He did know that. It had been about five years since he’d had to study them though. With a grimace he gulped down a second potion handed to him by the Healer. He knew they were close in age, but he always felt like a petulant child around them. 

“Healer Hughes will be in with someone from your division to ask you questions about the incident. I have a werewolf child to attend to, so if you could keep out of trouble for the three minutes it will take for them to arrive, I’ll take my leave.”

Chanyeol nodded. His best chance of learning more about Jongin’s condition was by waiting for his superiors anyway. The Healer seemed to know that too, as they made a last note on the parchment at the foot of his bed and left the room.

*+*+*+*+*+*+*

Chanyeol left St. Mungo’s three days later in an absolutely foul mood. The wizards they had apprehended at the house had died when the building caved in. He and Jongin were apparently only saved through his shield charm. They had found shattered vials with traces of a dangerous mental inhibitor potion on the corpses of the Imperiused wizards. Jongin had been struck by a mysterious curse that had triggered the blast when he’d opened the closet. Jongin hadn’t woken up yet. Jongin’s body was rejecting all general treatments. Jongin got worse every time they tried to make him better. Jongin would die if they didn’t figure out what was wrong with him.

Chanyeol had been permitted to see Jongin every day but trying to comfort someone in a coma felt a bit futile. Jongin’s mate, Kyungsoo, was there too and it made him feel awful every time Kyungsoo asked how _he_ was recovering. As if it shouldn’t have been _him_ lying unconscious on the bed, not his partner. Kyungsoo had asked Chanyeol to look after Jongin when they had been assigned to work together, and Chanyeol felt as if he’d betrayed him. 

Jongin’s mother was a veela, and her blood made his reactions to some things unpredictable. More often than not, his veela blood strengthened his system. In this case, the Healers had no idea if his heritage was helping or hurting him. They did know that having his mate close by helped stabilize him, so Kyungsoo refused to leave his side for longer than it took to shower. 

When Chanyeol got home, he found a note in the kitchen from his friend Jongdae. _Glad you’re not dead, floo me when you get home. We should talk and you owe me a Firewhisky for ending up in hospital again._ Chanyeol almost grinned. About a year ago Jongdae had nearly gotten himself killed trying to track down a wizard who had broken into Hogwarts grounds. They’d apprehended him in the Forbidden Forest, in the abandoned acromantula clearing. Before he’d been restrained, he’d managed to disembowel one Auror and hit Jongdae with a curse that made him _literally_ puke his guts out. They’d both been saved in the nick of time, but it was by far the closest call Jongdae had ever had. 

When Chanyeol had visited him after work, he had nearly cried at seeing his friend so weak. Jongdae had laughed heartily, promising to buy Chanyeol a drink for scaring him so badly. And thus the tradition was born. Any time one of them landed themselves in St. Mungo’s, they had to buy the other a drink. He glanced back at the note in his hand. He felt a bit nervous at _we should talk,_ Jongdae took nothing but his job and his friendships seriously. Which meant Jongdae was having problems with one or the other.

*+*+*+*+*+*+*

“I’m sorry, _WHAT”_ Chanyeol bellowed. “Whose brilliant idea was this? We’ll kill each other before any target gets the chance to. Are you kidding me?”

“Don’t curse the owl, Yeol.” Jongdae took a swig from the tumbler of firewhisky in his hand. He had the grace to look a bit sympathetic. “I just wanted to let you know before you go in to work.”

Chanyeol sat back and took a sip from his glass of whisky. Jongdae had been wise in ensuring he had a glass of alcohol in hand before telling him what they needed to talk about. Apparently, he was to be temporarily assigned to Kyungsoo’s Auror partner. Logically, it made sense. Jongin’s health was more stable with Kyungsoo beside him. Kyungsoo wouldn’t be in the right mindset to be hunting dangerous criminals. Therefore, he would be of most use to the department ensuring the health of another Auror and working through backlogged paperwork from Jongin’s beside at St. Mungo’s. 

That was something the Auror Department was known for. Ensuring that each worker was in the position where they could _be of most use_ to the department as a whole. It left wiggle room for Aurors dealing with burnout from long, slow cases. It allowed for paid leave or remote paperwork hours if a family member fell ill. It also allowed for injured Aurors to take time to properly heal before their next case. 

Since instigating the unofficial policy, Auror mortality had plummeted. They hired and trained a higher volume of people, which allowed for more paid time off and even breaks for poor mental health. Chanyeol wondered if he could use that as an excuse to bugger off work until Jongin was back in action. Of course, that meant he’d be leaving Jongin’s fate in the hands of his coworkers. He trusted them, but he also had a personal vendetta against whoever had hurt his partner. No… missing out on this case was not something he could stomach. Which meant accepting Baekhyun Byun as his partner for the foreseeable future. 

He heaved a sigh. “What’re my chances of working this case with a different partner?”

Jongdae laughed. They both knew that Jongin riding into work on a hippogriff fully healed the next day was more likely than Head Auror Singh allowing Chanyeol a reassignment. It wasn’t that the man was unreasonable, by any means. It was just that everyone in the department knew that he and Baekhyun had a bad history spanning well over a decade. Assigning them together on a case so deeply personal to each of them wasn’t a coincidence. Singh clearly believed that if they were ever going to get over their schoolboy rivalry, it would happen now. 

“Anyway Yeol, it’s Thursday and you don’t report back until Monday.” Jongdae mused between sips of his firewhisky, “Just take this time to meditate or swipe those Muggle mood stabilizers.” 

“I don’t need anti-depressants to handle him, Dae. I just need a Beater’s bat and some rope.”

“Kinky,” Jongdae sniggered into his glass. With a flick, Chanyeol sent the decorative cushions sailing at Jongdae’s head.

*+*+*+*+*+*+*

Loathe as he was to admit it, Chanyeol took Jongdae’s advice to heart and spent the rest of his weekend mediating— in a sense— to prepare for the emotional torture that was Baekhyun.

He reached out to some friends to cobble together a last-minute game of Quidditch. He went out Friday night and brought home a gorgeous boy that he fucked into the mattress three separate times. He went on two runs, did yoga for six total hours, and spent all day Sunday sore and hiding in his bed like the adult he was.

Monday morning, he dragged himself out of bed for his customary run. Three minutes in he remembered why he’d spent all weekend exhausting himself. He had to spend eight hours with Baekhyun without losing his temper and incinerating the Ministry. With a groan he picked up his pace and added a few miles to his loop. He hadn’t been sleeping well since Jongin’s accident and he knew he’d feel this later. 

He stepped out of the gilded fireplace in the Ministry Atrium at exactly 7:37. His workday began at 8:00 sharp and he was determined to beat Baekhyun into the office. They’d be working in the office of whichever of them arrived first, and he’d be damned if he had to give up the leather sofa Jongin’s mother had sent them. 

He marched determinedly towards the end of the hall, scanning the ever-changing gold symbols on the ceiling as he went. Unspeakables used the ceiling to communicate with one another and those working as consults for them. He hoped to see the rune assigned to him flashing among the countless others that he couldn’t interpret. By the time he reached the hall with the lifts, he was certain that he wasn’t needed by the Department of Mysteries. 

He had gotten a letter Friday informing him that a few Unspeakables were working with the Healers to determine the curse that had hit Jongin. If he heard from them, he knew it would be because they’d learned something new or thought up a new angle. With a sigh he entered the lift. The lift wasn’t crowded but they still stopped on nearly every floor in the way to level two. Once the grate slid open he marched towards the Auror Headquarters, passing the lopsided sign that identified their offices with a fond smile. 

The cubicles that had been around when Chanyeol had begun training had been replaced with offices for each Auror team. It allowed them to interview witnesses and family members discreetly and permitted discussion of sensitive cases without the use of a Silencing Charm. Unless they were working on something that required privacy though, no one shut their doors while they were in the office. The interdepartmental memos had a tendency to swarm and swoop upon workers who kept their doors shut for too long. 

Chanyeol peeked inside the quaint rooms as he walked briskly to his and Jongin’s office, just to be sure Baekhyun hadn’t beaten him in. When he saw the closed door reading _Do/Byun_ he grinned to himself in triumph. They were going to do this on his terms, in his way. He opened the door marked _Park/Kim_ he let himself relax a bit. 

Until a throat cleared itself behind him. He whipped around, drawing his wand in the time it took for him to face the intruder. The intruder was lounging on his and Jongin’s leather couch, wand lazily trained on Chanyeol. Chanyeol gave himself a glorious half second to consider how cathartic it would feel to jinx the man before him before he let his wand arm lower. Incrementally. 

“Bad form, assuming your office is a safe haven, Park.”

Chanyeol’s hand itched to grab his wand again. “Stupid idea, lurking in someone else’s office, Byun.”

He slipped his wand back into his sleeve holster, not wanting to give Baekhyun a reason to file an official complaint against him so soon. The man on the couch mirrored his movement while stretching out like a cat. A very arrogant, entitled cat.

“What are you doing in here?” Chanyeol bit out. If Baekhyun insisted they work in his stupid cluttered office, Chanyeol would implode.

“I’m getting used to my temporary office, Park. What does it look like?” Baekhyun yawned widely as he spoke, snuggling deeper into the couch. “Now, as far as I know, we have 13 minutes left before the day starts. Be a dear and get us some tea from the break room? I’m going to have a quick nap.”

Chanyeol was ready to shove Baekhyun off the couch, but he did want to get his morning cup of tea. He stalked out of the room and down the hall to the small break room that was nestled in the center of their department. He fixed two paper cups of tea, a loose-leaf English Breakfast for himself and a bagged green tea. He knew that Baekhyun favored Earl Grey. He slowly sipped from his cup, greeting his coworkers as the streamed blearily into the office or left after long night shifts. 

Once he knew Baekhyun’s tea would be tepid, he made himself another cup and brought both back to the office. He set his tea gently on his desk before moving over to the couch and setting Baekhyun’s cup on the floor. At 7:59 exactly, Baekhyun blinked his eyes open slowly and reached blindly for the tea. He took a hearty swig and paused. His eyes shot to Chanyeol as he swallowed painfully slowly. 

“Should I be flattered, Park, that you took this much time to annoy me first thing in the morning?”

Years ago, Chanyeol would have risen to the bait. But he now knew when Baekhyun had that glint in his eye, he was best ignored. It gave him some comfort to know that Baekhyun absolutely loathed being ignored. Baekhyun shot him a glare, as if to prove his point, and deliberately raised the tea back to his mouth for another sip. A few moments later, Head Auror Singh walking into the room. They were still engaged in a silent staring contest while Baekhyun deliberately sipped at his tea. 

“Ah, good. Auror Park, Auror Byun.” Singh dropped two files on Jongin’s desk. “I’m glad to see you’ve already settled on an office to use. There’s some paperwork here I think you should go through. Currently we are investigating what happened at the rigged house and including, the string of similar incidences. Any active stakeouts or raids you deem necessary _must_ be run by me first, though your case has the highest clearance. Am I understood?”

Chanyeol nodded, “Yes sir.” He heard Baekhyun chorus along from the couch. 

“Good. Glad that’s settled.” Singh turned to the door, then paused in the threshold. “I want it to be known that if I catch wind of any issues between the two of you, you’ll both be taken off of field work and deemed too personally invested to be involved in this case. Am I understood?”

Once again, they responded in sync, “Yes sir.”

With a nod, Singh left, robes billowing importantly behind him. Had Jongin been there, they would have expanded on their running joke that Important People knew a charm to make their robes impressively swoosh wherever they went. He felt a pang in his chest glancing up to meet Baekhyun’s bored gaze. 

He wanted his partner back. He wanted to catch the person who had hurt him in the first place. He wanted to talk about how nervous this case made him. Especially now that he’d seen someone he truly cared for get hurt. But again, it was Baekhyun blinking at him from the couch, not Jongin. So instead of voicing his insecurities, doubts, and fears, he glared at Baekhyun and said the first thing that came to mind.

“Ruin anything of his and I’ll skin you alive and leave you to bleed out on the carpet. Got it?”

Baekhyun’s face snapped from lazy indifference to frosty disdain in a heartbeat. “Do you plan to be as careless with me as your last partner? If so, I’ll just ask for paperwork now. I’d hate to be the next Jongin.”

The effect of his words was instantaneous. Chanyeol surged from behind his desk disarming Baekhyun on his way to the couch. Before Baekhyun could do more than swing his legs to the ground, Chanyeol had slammed his fist into Baekhyun’s alarmed face. The satisfaction of the hit flooded him. 

Baekhyun recovered and launched himself at Chanyeol with a snarl. Chanyeol dropped his wand in shock and he heard it clatter away from him. He looked a bit deranged, smashing his feet into Chanyeol’s kneecaps, forcing him to the ground with a grunt. Chanyeol lost himself in the flood of adrenaline that came from fighting. He lashed out with everything in him, shoving Baekhyun back and trying to use his size to gain the upper hand. He felt a sharp pain slice across his face. It stung but allowed him to get close enough to slam Baekhyun into his desk. Baekhyun kicked him in the groin, thrashing like a cat. 

Logically he knew they’d each only gotten a few hits in so far, but the adrenaline coursing through his body made him feel as if they’d been brawling for hours. He _never_ let himself lose control like this. It felt wonderful. It felt horrible. It felt like chaos. Pure, unadulterated chaos where their magic crackled in the air with no outlet while they hit each other like Muggles. Chanyeol yelped when Baekhyun sank his teeth into his forearm. Before he could return the favor, he felt a blast rip them apart. 

Suddenly he was there again— back in the house where everything had gone to shit. If he looked up… If he looked up, he’d be forced to watch Jongin go back to the closet and open it. He couldn’t stop it. He would have to watch his partner succumb to the awful curse that was holding him under. He would have to relive his failure. He would have to…

He blinked back tears, pulling his focus to the rug he had landed on, centering himself in the present. His knees hurt. That was good. He hadn’t been in pain before the explosion. He clenched his hands into fists and stood abruptly. One glance at the door, and he regretted letting Baekhyun get under his skin. Head Auror Singh stood there, wand out. He looked furious. A few other alarmed faces were staring in from behind Singh. 

“My office. Now.”

Chanyeol saw his and Baekhyun’s wands under the desk. He scooped them up and handed Baekhyun’s over once he was standing as well. They trudged after Singh to the end of the hall where the Head Auror’s office was situated.

*+*+*+*+*+*+*

“To be fair,” Jongdae said around a mouthful of sandwich, “you guys were brawling like Muggles within five minutes of him telling you to behave.”

“How could you _possibly_ know about that? You were in the field this morning!”

“You know this place. Everybody loves to gossip. Jongin was already news, then his partner and friend end up fighting like feral crups within 30 seconds of being left alone. It certainly sounds juicy.”

Chanyeol pinched the bridge of his nose between his fingers. He didn’t need this. Singh had spent the better part of the morning chewing them out. Then he had decided the only solution was to put them on paperwork. Together. As in: he would be switching Baekhyun’s and Jongin’s desks so that they would be forced to work together until he was satisfied that they had been properly punished. Chanyeol had to hand it to the man— he sure knew how to come up with bloody painful disciplinary tactics. 

What was worse, was that the moment Baekhyun had stormed out to lunch, Singh had pulled him aside and asked him if the explosion had triggered a panic response because of what happened at the house. Chanyeol could never lie directly to his boss, so he had to admit that it had. Which made him look weak. It made him look unfit for field work, even if they could have gotten along. He supposed it was good timing. If he was never allowed back in the field people would assume it started because of their fight and that Chanyeol was simply getting a more severe punishment. 

Even so, he hated the idea that everyone already knew about his and Baekhyun’s brawl. If that jackass could have just kept his mouth shut. The fact that he’d goaded Chanyeol using Jongin’s injury against him… Baekhyun Byun was the most revolting creature Chanyeol had ever had the misfortune to interact with. 

“Dae, can I pay you to buy me a million drinks this weekend?”

“It’s only Monday, Yeol. Don’t you think it’s a bit optimistic to assume you and Baekhyun will survive until the weekend?” 

“I never said _he’d_ be alive by the weekend.”

Jongdae giggled, nudging his trifle over to Chanyeol in consolation. Pouting, Chanyeol picked it up. He would need his strength this afternoon. He and Baekhyun were to spend the rest of the day cleaning up _their_ office without magic. He’d never regretting punching someone more. The lesson seemed to indicate that if he’d cursed Baekhyun, he’d be making amends for his crimes with his wand firmly in hand.

*+*+*+*+*+*+*

By the end of Tuesday, Chanyeol was ready to find a new career. His sleep schedule was still absolute rubbish and he and Baekhyun were now sorting through unsolved cases and determining if any could be reopened or permanently closed. It was tedious— there was an entire room dedicated to files of that nature. Chanyeol honestly had no clue who normally took this job on. Based on the mountain he’d been shown that they’d be sorting through, he assumed the last person to tackle the back room had been dead at least 200 years.

Chanyeol decided for the sake of his sanity, that he’d pull files from a different cabinet every week. It may be a little chaotic, but at least he felt that he could control something about this disaster of a working situation. Today he was sorting through crime files from two decades back. Auror Potter had been closing out his career at the time, there weren’t many unsolved cases from that time. Chanyeol _knew_ that a lot of that was the result of overzealous imprisonment and a lack of due process, but as far as the cases he had to go through? Glorious. 

Like many modern Aurors, it was Potter’s career that had led him to joining the force. That generation had brought about a lot of departmental changes, wrapped up the blood purity conflict, and ushered in an age of peace and prosperity. Potter himself only retired after an injury in a duel forced him to take time off. The only duel he’d ever lost. They still hadn’t caught his opponent. By all reports, he was a kid too deep in his potions to even realize he’d been dueling The Savior, but one of his desperate hexes had hit his target. Getting _the_ Harry Potter to hospital had been a bigger priority than tracking down some junkie. Potter had retired a month later and all but disappeared from the public eye until his peaceful death, four years ago.

Potter had done so much for the department. There had still been flaws, of course, just as there were plenty still. But as he went through the files that hadn’t been closed 20 years ago, it was hard for Chanyeol to rid himself of the romanticism he had grown up with. 

A muffin hitting the side of his head made him jump. “Got us a snack.” Baekhyun said, dropping back behind his own mountain of paperwork. Chanyeol hadn’t even noticed Baekhyun leaving. 

“Thanks.” Baekhyun had never brought him food before, this was certainly an improvement. He bit into the muffin, cinnamon dancing across his tongue. Before he could take another bite, there was a loud pop and a wave of heat washed over him. When he went to ask Baekhyun _what the bloody hell_ was happening to him, all that came out was an indignant squawk. From his beak. _He had a beak._ His desk looked huge… there was only one logical conclusion. Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes had dropped new products recently and he was now a bird. A _motherfucking bird._

With a flap of his wings, he managed to get himself airborne. Mostly. He was having a hard time flying straight. All he needed though, was to get out the door and get himself to Singh’s office. With a shout, Baekhyun shot a spell at the door, slamming it closed. 

“Here, here. Jeez. You can’t take a joke, can you mate.” Baekhyun looked slightly worried. Good. “Here, eat this and it’ll put you back. And stop squawking for Merlin’s sake.”

Chanyeol glowered at the seed sitting on Baekhyun’s palm. This was _not_ a joke. This was meant to piss him off. If he couldn’t run off to Singh, he’d have to find another way to get back at Baekhyun. On unstable wings he flapped in Baekhyun’s general direction. The idiot relaxed, clearly thinking that Chanyeol was on his way over for the birdseed that would return him to a human. Which he _technically_ was. He just had a little stop to make first. 

Baekhyun wailed as his tower of unreviewed files crashed from the desk. The birdseed  
scattered across the floor and Chanyeol let himself flutter down to scoop some in his beak. Now that he was expecting it, he felt the transfiguration wash over his body. 

“What the _fuck_ Park?”

“What do you mean? I didn’t do anything. It’s not my fault you expected me to be able to use the damned wings properly.”

“That was intentional, and we both know it!” Baekhyun was flushed scarlet and his voice reaching dangerous levels. He looked a bit mad.

“Oh, right, and turning me into a feathery mess was something you _totally_ thought I’d enjoy. That was such a well-meaning joke, wasn’t it _mate?”_

“Wow, real mature Park.”

“You’re the one that started it!”

For a moment, they glared at each other. Chanyeol’s heartrate was through the roof. Existing in the same space as Baekhyun for eight hours a day was all the cardio he needed. Even he could admit when he was being an utter ass though. With a sigh he stooped down to help Baekhyun collect the files from the ground. It seemed that Baekhyun was sorting through the years that immediately preceded their recruitment to the department. 

“Why’d you pick this time period?”

Baekhyun regarded him warily, as if expecting some kind of trap. “I don’t know, really. I just feel like we must be missing something about this safe-houses case. Criminals this skilled don’t just pop out of the ground like daisies. I was hoping I’d run across something similar that the department had missed or overlooked I guess.”

Chanyeol felt a slight pang. He’d been reliving the glory days of someone else’s career while Baekhyun had been hunting for relevant data and information. Chanyeol half-heartedly swept his hand along the underside of Baekhyun’s desk in case any files had slid under it. He stacked his pile of old cases and deposited them on his desk before sitting down to at least organize them by date. 

“What, not running off to tell Singh that I made you a bird?”

“Not as long as you don’t tell him that I dive bombed your paperwork.”

Baekhyun pursed his lips, then gave him a tentative nod. It felt like something big had passed between them, but Chanyeol knew they’d really only moved into _behaving somewhat like adults_ territory. 

“Let me guess, you’re doing Potter’s era?” Baekhyun looked up with a smirk from where he’d been putting his stack of files back in chronological order. Chanyeol didn’t answer, but he could feel a slight flush creeping up his neck. Baekhyun sniggered, “Gryffindors, you’re all the same.”

Chanyeol wanted to roll his eyes but refrained. Baekhyun had been a Slytherin in the year above him at Hogwarts. They had clashed plenty in school. Both played quidditch and both had enjoyed the spirited rivalry between their houses. Only, in their case, the rivalry was a bit less light-hearted. 

When Chanyeol was a first year, he had accidentally set fire to Baekhyun’s book bag in the corridor trying to light one of the sconces that had gone out. Baekhyun had retaliated and their rivalry had begun. 

“At least we’re not all power-hungry vultures.”

“I cannot believe you just said that.” Baekhyun’s eyes darkened. “Ambition does not equate to being power-mad. Do you honestly think that any of the rest of you would hold office if every Slytherin wanted to rule the world?”

“How humble.”

“You started this Park. Not all Gryffindors are bull-headed martyrs and not all Slytherins care to hold power over others. Ambition to run a flower shop is just as legitimate as ambition to change the world. And if you’re still clinging onto school yard prejudices, I’ll have to ask Singh to reassign me because I _will not_ work with someone who espouses the bias and prejudice that extended the Second Wizarding War.”

“You’re the one who just said Gryffindor’s are all the same!”

“Yes, my generalization wasn’t a harmful and insulting stereotype you troglodyte.”

Chanyeol held his hands up placatingly. “I like Kyungsoo well enough. And sorry. Didn’t realize it would bother you so much.”

Baekhyun snorted. “Yes, why would having my partner doubt my credibility and ethics bother me?”

“Well it’s not like we’ll ever see the field together!” It was the wrong thing to say again.

“You’re assuming we’ll be able save Jongin. Don’t be naïve, Park. There’s a greater chance we’ll be down a friend and stuck with each other for the rest of our careers if they don’t get a new lead soon.”

With a sigh, Chanyeol sat back down and resumed the file he’d been working on before the feathery fiasco. So much for acting like adults. Although, he mused to himself as he flipped through the case on his desk, they hadn’t thrown hexes _or_ punches this time. And that was an improvement.

*+*+*+*+*+*+*

By the time the time Friday rolled around, they had developed a sort of truce. In the morning, Chanyeol would bring tea. In the afternoon, Baekhyun would fetch them a snack. They only spoke when necessary, and they avoided anything resembling personal conversation. It wasn’t an ideal working situation, but it was working well enough. Chanyeol was nearing the end of his Potter-era stack when he paused.

“Hey! I found the file of Potter’s last case in the field!”

Baekhyun’s eyes flicked up before refocusing on the papers in front of him.

“Fine. Don’t care about it.”

“Why would anyone ever care about it?”

“He’s interesting! C’mon, even you have to admit it was a weird case. Who breaks into Hogwarts? Basically anyone can go any time they want to, if they owl the staff first.”

“Why do criminals do anything? The guy was off his cauldron, didn’t they? He probably thought he could find something worth selling in the Dark Forest. There’s loads of marketable goods in there. Enough unicorn hair caught on the brush to pay for a few more phials of whatever he was on.”

“Okay, but he beat The Boy Who Lived. No one else ever managed to do that!”

“Merlin, you are such a Gryffindor it hurts. Potter was up against someone volatile and unpredictable. It’s shocking no one else took any damage. You know the cornered ones tend to react unpredictably and lash out. It’s nothing to get excited about.”

“Wait. What did you just say?”

“I called you a Gryffindor.”

“No. I mean, yes, but that’s not as insulting as you think it is. No, I mean about cornered wizards.”

“I said they lash out? They’re unpredictable?”

Chanyeol pursed his lips. Yanking open his bottom drawer he riffled through his latest cases, pulling out his copies of the reports. 

“What are you doing, Park?”

“Cornered! You’re right. Cornered wizards lash out! But then why haven’t any of the cursed house wizards lashed out? I should have noticed earlier!”

“You lost me.”

“Oh come on. You and Kyungsoo have cleared out at least one of the houses. Did the wizards you dueled do anything surprising or unexpected?”

“They were skilled duelers, but nothing to take note of.”

“RIGHT!”

“Park, are you on any new potions today?”

“No, Baekhyun, you’re not getting it!”

“Did you just call me Baekhyun? Are you under the Imperius or something?”

“No, listen! When have dark wizards ever been fair duelers? When have they ever taken the high road or not been desperate? They were hard to bring down, yes. But they did everything right! That’s where the wizard controlling them went wrong!”

Finally, Baekhyun’s eyes lit up. “You’re saying that they’re too textbook. That if the person controlling them wanted to actually beat us, they would have put up more of a fight.”

“Yes!”

“But why would they want us to win? Each time we do, they have to Imperius new wizards.”

“I don’t know. But, it feel weird, right? Like it could be something?”

“I guess we should tell Singh and let him take it from here.”

Singh did not think it was anything to take note of. “We’ve considered it boys. But there’s a bit of a lag with wizards under the Imperius, it would make sense that they wouldn’t be able to perform at their peak. Besides, our teams in the field are working on a theory related to this and I cannot disclose anything else about it. You know how active cases are.”

“But—”

“Auror Park, you’re still on deskwork. I appreciate you bringing this to my attention, and I’m pleased to see the pair of you cooperating, but this isn’t anything to go on. Nor are our leads anything you two need to be informed of. Our intuition isn’t always correct, and you two are still of best use sorting through files.”

Chanyeol recoiled. If _that_ wasn’t dismissal, he didn’t know what was.

Back in their office Baekhyun turned to him. “He acknowledged that they’re working on something similar. It’s not that bad. Give it a few more weeks, and we’ll be right back in the thick of things.” He gently laid a palm on Chanyeol’s shoulder. Chanyeol stormed back to his desk.

“We don’t _have_ a few more weeks, Byun. Jongin is _dying._ Do they get that? Do they care?”

“You aren’t the only one missing him. And if you’re implying that our colleagues aren’t doing everything in their power to get him back, then you’re stupider than you look.” Baekhyun’s voice was clipped, his posture stiff. He was back to sorting through cases like they’d never left and been snubbed by the Head Auror. 

Chanyeol looked gloomily back at the case on his desk. The listed apparent motive on the file was _Acromantula Venom._ He pouted at it. It seemed that Baekhyun was right in assuming the criminal just wanted an easy income. He didn’t know why, but the mention of the acromantulas bothered him. He felt like they were significant somehow. Had they played a role in the war? Had Potter had dealings with them? Why was Binns such a crap teacher? Had he made their lessons more interesting, he might have remembered the finer details of Potter’s formative life better.

A few hours later, Baekhyun let out a bark of laughter. 

“What?” Chanyeol bit out.

“Ugh, they say there’s no such thing as coincidence.”

“Did you find something?”

“Not of any import. Just a report from James Potter about some break in at his place. Apparently, someone snuck in to his flat and tried to win over his affections by less-than-legal means. What is it with the Potters?”

“Did they say if anything was taken?”

“Just some clothes, I think. He said he was missing a few items from his wardrobe. They found chocolates laced with love potion, so it seems it was a painfully obtuse attempt at wrangling the Savior’s son into a romantic dalliance.”

Chanyeol giggled. “Did you just say dalliance?”

“Did you just giggle, quaffle-head?”

Chanyeol threw an empty ink pot at Baekhyun’s head. He returned to his work with a grin. Baekhyun had always been something of a gossip; he found he was rather pleased to know that hadn’t changed.

*+*+*+*+*+*+*

That evening, Jongdae talked Chanyeol into joining him at a new club. Somewhere between a pick-up game of Quidditch and curry to kick off their weekend, Jongdae had decided that the cure to Chanyeol’s frustrations was dancing. Normally, he wouldn’t let Jongdae talk him into it, but he was feeling oddly passive after Singh’s dismissal earlier in the day. He couldn’t help but feel that at least part of their assignment had to do with his moment of panic earlier in the week. He knew if he mentioned it to anyone they’d try and make him see a Mind Healer. It was probably a good idea, but he wasn’t fully ready to admit it to himself.

After dinner, Jongdae went home to shower and grab himself a change of clothes. Chanyeol took his time getting ready for the evening. He knew Jongdae would fuss over him if he wasn’t presentable by the other’s standards, and the last time Jongdae had been given access to Chanyeol’s hair it had changed colors every three minutes for the whole night. He didn’t mind the look, but his scalp had tingled for a week after.  
At 9 o’clock sharp, Jongdae marched into Chanyeol’s flat with a bottle of red currant rum. In response to Chanyeol’s raised eyebrow, Jongdae smirked, uncorking it with a tap from his wand. 

“You can’t pregame a place like _Amortentia_ with whiskey! That’s too pedestrian.”

“Sure it is.” All the same, he accepted the tumbler that Jongdae handed him in good spirit.

They each made their way through several glasses of the rum. Chanyeol marveled at the weightless feeling that crept over him as he drank. He didn’t let himself get drunk often— even off-duty, Aurors were meant to comport themselves with some semblance of decorum. After a few drinks very little of what Chanyeol did could be considered classy. Tonight however, he was celebrating; he and Baekhyun had made it through an entire week working together with minimal bloodshed and no fatalities. Which seemed a legitimate reason to get sloshed. 

They took the Floo Network to the club, taking extra care to enunciate clearly. Stumbling through the gilded fireplace, they joined the crowd of people waiting to enter the club proper. About 15 minutes later they were permitted in. The air was permeated with a pearlescent sheen, weaving and winding between the crowd. They headed to the bar, a black slab of stone that appeared to be undulating with the music. After ordering two firewhiskies they made their way into the throng. Within 30 seconds of joining the writhing mass of bodies, someone sent Jongdae’s drink onto Chanyeol’s shirt.

“Sorry!” The silver-haired blur said as it swept towards the bar.

“Ooh!” Jongdae’s eyes lit up. “We should get another drink!”

Chanyeol laughed, tossing his drink back and following Jongdae back up to the bar. He vanished the spilt liquid from his chest and caught sight of quicksilver hair leaning over the bar, chatting to the bartender. _Figures,_ it’s always the pretty boys who get attention. Beside him, Jongdae growled something about the bartender winking at him earlier. 

“Come on, Dae. You can’t expect him to not flirt with everyone. It’s kind of his job.”

“Oh shuddup,” Jongdae slurred, “he’s pretty and I want him to bruise my throat into next week.”

“Wow, did not ever want to hear that. Ever. I need to go bleach my brains out.”

At that moment the bartended materialized in front of them. “I don’t know what bleach is, gorgeous, but how about I get you and your friend a drink on the house.”

In a heartbeat he was gone again, mixing up some elaborate drink. 

“Oh Merlin, he winked at you. The sexy barkeep winked at you and you’re going to abandon me for a sh—”

Jongdae elbowed him in the solar plexus causing him to double over coughing as the man deposited two drinks in front of them and whisking away to take an order from a group of giggling girls. 

Chanyeol turned to Jongdae. “So the fit bartender just bought you off me for a fancy cocktail, and now I’m expected to make myself scarce?”

“Yes please.”

Shoulders slumping, he turned away from the bar— nearly trampling the boy with the silver hair again. 

“Watch it!” A good-natured laugh reached his ears before his eyes caught up to what he was seeing. 

“Baekhyun?”

His new partner was wearing a deep green shirt with a plunging neckline and his hair was newly charmed. The silver beautifully complemented the smattering of subtly glinting gems adorning his temples. His open expression fell as he noticed Chanyeol was the one in his way.

“You’ve got to be bloody joking.” He tipped his head to his right, where the vapor was thickest. “I’m going to dance over there. You will be over here.” He gestured vaguely to the left where the visibility was best. He furrowed his brows and vaguely gestured again to the left where he wanted Chanyeol to go. Then with a nod, he slipped effortlessly away.

Feeling distinctly more sober, Chanyeol downed the rest of his drink. Within a few songs he found himself lost in the grind and rhythm of the music. He wasn’t a great dancer, but he was passable and enjoyed it. He felt a body press against his and glanced down. A pretty girl with curly, purple hair rolled her hips in time with his. She let a hand trail down his shirt, catching suggestively against the gold buttons. He leaned down to inform her he wasn’t interested, but she beat him to it.

“Sorry, I’m trying to send the message that I’m not interested in that girl over there.” She tipped her head back, leading his gaze to a put-out looking woman holding two drinks coming from the bar. Chanyeol wrapped a hand around the girl’s waist, raising an inquiring eyebrow. “She insisted on buying the drinks and bringing them to me, it didn’t feel right.”

He nodded, his instincts rearing up— begging him to have the drinks tested and to question the girl holding them. He fought the urge down. He was still under the influence and off duty. If the woman began firing hexes, he’d be within his rights to act. As it was, he had no real evidence to open an off-duty investigation. 

A few songs later, he escorted the girl to the exit Floos and made his way back to the dance floor. He still felt on edge about how uneasy that girl had looked. He knew that people without much defensive training were more vulnerable. He was just glad that she had been listening to her instincts. 

Something in his periphery caught his attention. The transient vapor playing amongst the crowd making him question if it had been a trick of the light or not. Chanyeol felt his heart constrict. There was something going on. He could feel it. He could just _feel_ it. He slipped his wand into his hand.

Glancing around uneasily he tried to get a glimpse of Jongdae. Jongdae could help. He was hyper aware of his surroundings, and that’s how he felt it coming. A slight disturbance in the air grew stronger before pulsing out in a wave over the crowd.

With a shout he sent off the strongest protection spell he could as the room shifted. 

He saw peoples’ mouths opening but couldn’t hear them. He saw Jongin falling again. Always falling. In the house with the mind-addling mist and the whip-like flash that had burned so hot he thought he would boil in his own skin. He still felt like he was boiling in his own skin…

*+*+*+*+*+*+*

_MOTHERFUCKING CHANYEOL PARK YOU START BREATHING THIS INSTANT OR I’LL MAKE YOU A BIRD FOR GOOD AND STICK YOU IN A SPARKLY PINK CAGE!_

*+*+*+*+*+*+*

Chanyeol sat up gasping, clutching at his throat. When he realized his airway wasn’t restricted, he allowed himself to collapse. He tried to evaluate where he might be, but his memory was fuzzy.

“You’re at my flat Chanyeol.” He knew that voice. “It’s Baekhyun Byun. You were at a club with Jongdae and had a panic attack.” A cool compress gently pressed against his temples.

It came flooding back. The girl, the mist, the explosion. He sprang back up, compress sliding from his head.

“Woah there Mr. Leaping Toadstool. You’re safe, you’re fine.”

“What about everyone else?”

Baekhyun tugged him back to the floor. “Park, I don’t know what you thought was happening, but nothing happened.”

“But…” 

_“Chanyeol!”_ There was a new edge to Baekhyun’s voice as he reapplied the cooling pack to Chanyeol’s head. “Everyone is fine. Like I said, you had a panic attack. Were you triggered by the noise?”

Chanyeol frowned, letting himself settle on the shockingly comfortable rug. He’d been tense before— when he noticed the mist— but the explosion was when he’d assumed the worst. He nodded, glaring at his sock. Baekhyun twisted behind him, then shoved a cup of steaming tea in Chanyeol’s hands. Chanyeol accepted the cup and took a sip. He felt the final dregs of his panic recede. Glancing up, he saw Baekhyun rubbing his temples. 

“Every few hours _Amortentia_ shifts. Some bullshit about how the scent varies for each person? Really, it’s an excuse for them to make a lot of noise and show off their top tier illusion transfiguration. Honestly, what were you doing there in the first place?”

Chanyeol tried to let himself process this. “Uh, Jongdae brought me.”

Baekhyun snorted. “That’s just like him. Merlin he’s so thick I’m shocked the department hasn’t adopted him as an animate shield charm.”

“Hey!” Chanyeol still didn’t understand what Baekhyun was getting at. What he did understand though, was that he always should defend Jongdae. 

“Do you even know _what_ you’re insulted by?”

“You called Jongdae dumb!”

“He _is_ dumb, Chanyeol. If he knew the first thing about that club or spent more than thirty seconds with you since Jongin’s accident he never would have taken you there.”

“Why?”

Baekhyun was now looking at him like a first-year caught in a trick staircase. Chanyeol hated it. “Because that club almost perfectly replicates your accident. And it’s not like they don’t boast about it in adverts.” Baekhyun took a sip of his own mug of tea, “I should also apologize. I was annoyed to see you earlier this evening and didn’t think. I have read the incident report countless times and I should have predicted that you’d react poorly.”

Chanyeol spent about a solid minute blinking at Baekhyun before he could form words again. He had about a million questions, but a few observations suddenly struck him. 

“What the hell happened? When I cast the shield? Where is Jongdae? Did you tell him that we were leaving because—”

Of all the things that had surprised him tonight, Baekhyun’s sudden laughter was the most alarming so far. “Oh, right, no.” He rocked back and forth a little. “You basically just delayed the transfiguration, so that’s fine. And Jongdae had to take Yixing to hospital. Basically, there was an incident with a party trick and accidentally swallowing an ever-changing shot glass. Jongdae’s with him in Mungo’s as they try to figure out how to vanish the glass from his throat without damaging it. Or his stomach? I honestly wasn’t paying that close of attention.”

Chanyeol reflexively touched his throat. Ever-changing shot glasses expanded and shrank in an unpredictable pattern. The trick was to try and take the shot when it was largest to get the most to drink. They were a fun novelty item and one Chanyeol would hate to have inside him. 

“Wait, Yixing?”

“Yeah, the bartender— he’s my friend.”

Chanyeol nodded, taking a sip of his tea. He glanced around at Baekhyun’s flat. It was nice. They seemed to be on the drawing room floor. “How did we get here?” 

“I apparated us. Would you like anything to eat? It’s late, you must be hungry.”

“I should get home, actually.”

“You’re staying here tonight, sorry.”

“Excuse me?”

Baekhyun walked out of room, talking as he went. “We both know Jongdae is happier tending to Yixing as his patient and I honestly don’t want to scar myself by asking to trade anyway. Merlin knows what they’re getting up to, but I’d rather not see my best friend’s prick. We also know that he would hex me if I let you spend the night alone after this, so here you shall stay my overgrown quaffle-head.”

Chanyeol followed him into a cozy kitchen. He sat down at the table and tugged his shirt sleeves over his hands. Baekhyun threw him an apple and set about frying eggs. Chanyeol fidgeted with the fruit. “Hey. Er, thanks for tonight. I still don’t really understand what happened, but I know it would have been a lot worse for me if you hadn’t been there.”

Baekhyun looked over at him, blinking slowly. “You know, I’ve known you over ten years and I think that’s the nicest you’ve ever been to me.”

“Okay, well that’s just not true. Back at Hogwarts I told you that the scarf you got in America looked stupid.”

“Okay, I’ll bite. How exactly was that being nice?”

“Prevented you from the embarrassment of continuing to wear it! I saved you from unspeakable humiliation!”

Baekhyun’s eyes lit up, dancing as he slid a plate of eggs and toast in front of Chanyeol. “You know Park, sometimes I wonder just how impulsive you must be to have been sorted Gryffindor over Slytherin.”

“You spend that much time thinking about me, Byun?”

“Hard not to. I can’t even go out without having to save your arse.” Baekhyun refilled their tea and sat opposite Chanyeol, smirking over the lip of his mug. 

“Lucky for you it’s a bloody fine arse to be saving!”

Baekhyun giggled again, before swiping one of the slices of toast from the plate. Chanyeol hated how comfortable he felt. Baekhyun had always seemed so arrogant, but he was starting to think defensive would have been a better description. With his guard down, he was shockingly easy to be around. Once the food had been demolished, Baekhyun led Chanyeol to a sleeping nook behind the kitchen. “It’s here or the sofa in my den. I know it’s small, but I promise it’s comfortable.”

Chanyeol looked around at the room. It was a bit like a massive cupboard with a large bed crammed in. The bed took up nearly the entirety of the room, with a small nightstand squished on the opposite side from the door. A pile of blankets and a few books squeezed between the wall and bed. Small lights fashioned after snitches lazily flew at the top of the low, pointed ceiling. 

“You just tap any of them with your wand and they all go out.” Baekhyun shifted his weight and picked an imaginary thread from his shirt. “I don’t have bottoms that will fit, but I can grab a shirt for you to sleep in.”

Chanyeol nodded and looked back inside the room. It felt a bit like his old bed at Hogwarts. Something about the way it made the rest of the world seem unimportant. Like he could hide here forever and he’d be safe, happy. Just jumped when a wad of cotton hit his face.

“I’m going to bed. I put a spare toothbrush in the washroom and there’s a towel there on the stool by the bath if you want. If the anxiety comes back, come find me. Okay? Your pride isn’t worth trying to deal with that alone.”

Before Chanyeol could respond, Baekhyun had turned around and slipped through to the kitchen towards his room. Chanyeol got himself ready for bed and transfigured the washcloth Baekhyun had left him into a spare pair of pants. He knew it would infuriate Baekhyun to no end, but he refused to attempt spell-cleaning anything that touched his prick. He’d heard horror stories from his first Quidditch captain. After one of the strangest nights of his life, he fell into a peaceful, dreamless sleep.

The next morning, a light tapping on the door woke him up. “Hey, Park. I made breakfast.”

Chanyeol kicked off the blankets and pulled his trousers on before entering the kitchen. Baekhyun had made bacon, sausages, and waffles with fresh fruit cut into bowls. 

“Do you always do this much for your overnight guests?”

“No, only the ones I pity.” Baekhyun snapped. A moment later he set two mugs of tea on the table and sat down across from him. “Sorry. I slept like shit. I’ve been using that room for the last few weeks.” He jerked his chin towards the room Chanyeol had spent the night. 

“I’m sorry, I would have taken the couch if I knew.”

“Which is why I didn’t tell you, you bleeding-heart Gryffindor.”

They ate in silence before Chanyeol had the courage to talk again. “So, that room. Are there enchantments in there?”

Baekhyun set down his fork. “No. I didn’t want to get addicted to dreamless sleep or anything. My mind healer just helped me make a space that felt… safe. You needed it more than me last night.”

“I swear Byun—”

“Call me Baekhyun. Please? I’ve seen you nearly shit yourself now. Using my surname sounds too formal.”

“Fine _Baekhyun._ I swear if you actually pity me—”

“Are you joking? I just told you I had to set up an entire room to deal with my anxiety and you think I’m over here pitying you? Honestly. Gryffindors are denser than trolls.”

“I resent that.”

“You aren’t contradicting me though. So it must be true.” Baekhyun smiled around his mouthful of bacon.

After breakfast Chanyeol helped Baekhyun tidy up the kitchen. He spent three minutes hiccoughing bubbles in punishment for ruining Baekhyun’s washcloth and by early afternoon he felt entirely too at ease with his new partner. Until Baekhyun broke the silence.

“Don’t hate me.”

“Great opening line.”

“Look. Last night… You were unconscious for kind of a while. I think you used a lot of magic trying to protect people, and I think the panic didn’t help but. Well, I wasn’t sure if I should bring you to St. Mungo’s or not. So, I may have performed Legilimency to make sure you were okay.”

Chanyeol shoved away from the table. “That’s a huge invasion—”

“Chanyeol please! You don’t know how awful they are at St. Mungo’s with stuff like this! You were so much better here, just let me explain—”

Before he could say another word, Chanyeol stormed out of the kitchen. He grabbed a handful of powder from the pot on the mantle and took the Floo Network home. He stumbled through in just his trousers but refused to go back to get his shirt. _This_ was exactly why trusting new people was a huge mistake. Baekhyun ruined it within twelve hours. Chanyeol felt so stupid for caving so quickly to Baekhyun’s manipulations.

He didn’t get more than 6 hours of sleep the rest of the weekend.

*+*+*+*+*+*+*

“What did you see?” It was Monday morning and Chanyeol was in a foul mood. Baekhyun it seemed was equally frustrated.

“That you’re a great big git. With the intellect of a flobberworm.”

“I am in no mood for your shite Byun.”

Baekhyun’s blazing eyes flipped to ice. “I saw more in your memories than you included in the report of Jongin’s accident.”

“You read the report?”

“Countless times. How else will we learn what went wrong? You withheld information?”

“Of course not. I’m not stupid enough to think I could get away with it.”

“Well you’re clearly stupid enough to see new information and not document it, or dumb enough to block out data that could help Jongin wake up just to protect yourself.”

“What are you talking about?”

“THE SPELL, CHANYEOL.” Baekhyun looked remarkably like an offended hippogriff. “The spell that struck Jongin. In the report you are quoted as saying ‘a whip-like motion. That’s all I recall’ but Friday night you remembered heat. A boiling heat.”

He was shocked into silence. Baekhyun was right. His nightmares over the rest of the weekend had included the searing heat as well and he hadn’t even noticed. A few moments passed in silence before he rushed back out the door all the way down to the Department of Mysteries. He needed to tell Junmyeon and Minseok immediately— the Unspeakables needed every scrap of information he could give them.

The rest of the morning passed in silence, each of them working on their respective files without interacting. Chanyeol appreciated that they had a new lead for the Unspeakables, but he couldn’t get over the invasion of privacy that was Baekhyun breaking into his head without his permission. Legilimency was so personal, so intimate. 

The week passed in much the same manner. They traded off getting tea or snacks but otherwise pretended the other wasn’t there. Chanyeol finished Potter’s era and moved on to cases from five years back. He noticed a trend of break-ins at Hogwarts grounds. Most were concentrated around the Forbidden Forest, one mentioned a tomb by the Great Lake, another referenced a drunk group of friends on the Quidditch Pitch. Excepting the Quidditch incident, they had all been dismissed as desperate people looking for nostalgia or a quick buck. Chanyeol still felt it was odd and tried to bring it to Singh’s attention, but was again dismissed. 

Two weeks after the club incident he and Baekhyun were back to snapping at one another anytime the other so much as breathed too loudly. Baekhyun noticed a trend with magical creatures. And another with historical landmarks. He too, was dismissed. Apparently a reconnaissance team had found another two curse-laden houses— after Jongin they planned to send large groups to each. This new development took precedence over his and Baekhyun’s investigations into petty crimes of the past.

The Monday of the first week in November, they watched the teams move out. Fourteen of the best trained, most experienced Aurors joked and laughed on their way out of the department. Morale was high. With any luck they’d be able to bring someone in conscious and get a clue as to the whereabouts of the mastermind. If their luck was really strong, they’d get the actual person controlling things from behind the scenes. 

The day passed mostly in tense silence, Chanyeol was still making a pile of Hogwarts break-ins. Judging by the two stacks on the side of Baekhyun’s desk— he was tracking the patterns he’d noticed too. They may not apply to the current case, but they’d been taught to follow their instincts. Just because these files weren’t relevant for this case didn’t mean they wouldn’t be useful for another. 

By midday Chanyeol was getting antsy. The deployed teams should either have been back by now or sent a Patronus to update headquarters. They couldn’t risk sending a bright Patronus and giving away the location of their teams, so they were stuck stewing in their anxiety. The very office seemed to be holding its breath. 

By 7 o’clock, Singh had to herd everyone out of the office. Those who worked nights had come in and would monitor their situation to the best of their abilities. When Chanyeol got home and made sure his Floo was open to work calls, he knew his actions were being mirrored by everyone else on the force. He added a small amount of Sleeping Draught to his evening cup of tea and crawled into bed early. He would need all the sleep he could get if he was to suffer through another day like today. 

_Jongin was lying motionless on the floor. He was covered in a sheen of sweat. He struggled to his feet. The blinding white-blue light struck him. He fell._

_Jongin was lying motionless on the floor. He as covered in a sheen of sweat. He struggled to his feet and looked to Chanyeol. His mouth opened but there was no sound coming out. The blinding white-blue light struck him. He fell._

_Jongin didn’t rise this time. Jongin didn’t look like he was breathing anymore._

With a sob, Chanyeol jerked awake in bed. His sheets clung to the cold sweat covering his chest and arms. He was shaking and couldn’t seem to catch his breath. The world seemed off-kilter. Everything in his life had gone so wrong. So fast. His eyes welled with tears, but he felt oddly unaffected as they slipped down his cheeks. Somewhere between 20 minutes and 20 years later, he felt himself settle a bit, the panic receding to numbness.

He penned a quick note to the Unspeakables about the color of the curse he saw in his dream, making sure to tell them it could be his mind making it up. He leaned against the window, watching his owl fly off into the night carrying his letter. The moon was hidden beneath a thick layer of clouds, the city a bit dimmer for its absence. With a sense of foreboding, he shut the window and turned back to his room.

After a shower he changed the linens on his bed. A glance at his clock told him it was only 11 pm. The Dreamless Sleep gently tried guiding him back to sleep. He knew he ought to Floo someone, spend the night on a friend’s couch perhaps. He yearned for a gently lit room behind a welcoming kitchen. With a groan of frustration, he forced himself to his own bed— there wasn’t enough gold in Gringotts to make him swallow his pride and impose on Baekhyun. He spent the rest of his night dozing off and jerking awake in fear.

Tuesday morning, he went to work early. After 5 am he hadn’t been able to fall back asleep, so he’d gone on a run. He had also picked up a veritable feast for breakfast. Baekhyun never seemed to wake up early enough to eat well, and after the previous night Chanyeol had a new perspective on how horrible his weekend could have been without Baekhyun’s help Friday night. When he made it into the office Baekhyun carefully regarded the food on the table by the couch.

“What is this?”

“An apology. And a thank you.”

Baekhyun pinched off a bite of a scone and nibbled on it.

“Nothing is spelled or charmed you idiot. I just wanted to give you a peace offering.”

Baekhyun nodded and tucked into the food with fervor. “What brought this on? I thought I was Undesirable No. 1 in your book.”

“Last night was shitty and this weekend wasn’t. I’m no genius, but even I worked out what the difference was.”

Baekhyun abruptly stopped eating, peering up at him through his eyelashes. Chanyeol felt the stirrings of horribly timed arousal. “What happened? Have you made an appointment with a Mind Healer yet?”

“Er, I had a dream where I was back in the house. But Jongin kept getting hurt over and over. It was fucking/bloody awful.”

“And the Mind Healer?” Chanyeol looked determinedly at his shoes. “You prat. I can recommend someone if you won’t do it yourself.”

He nodded. He knew he needed it, but he also knew that he wasn’t going to spend the time researching the best options. He made a note to ask how Baekhyun knew so much about what he was going through later on. He hadn’t heard of any big accidents in Baekhyun’s career. That was something he knew he would have used in poor taste in the past. Or now— if he was in a foul enough mood.

The morning passed in a haze of anxiety and fear. Auror Headquarters itself seemed to be holding its breath. After he finished eating, Baekhyun had put stasis charms on the remaining food and gotten to work on his files. They hadn’t spoken in hours and the tension in the air was making Chanyeol fidgety. He found another Hogwarts break-in report and set it in the small stack on the corner of his desk. 

Just after lunch, a crow Patronus swept past their open door. In his rush to get to Singh’s office, Chanyeol knocked over the Hogwarts cases. He didn’t care— making sure their coworkers were alive was far more important. 

“… ambushed yesterday. I don’t know where we are. Saw MacDonald last time I was conscious. Ali tried to leave and tripped a curse. Didn’t recognize it. Watson is dead, she took a curse from one of the Imperiused that was heading towards Barts. Be careful. All others alive.” Mary Parkinson’s voice faded away with her Patronus and all hell broke loose.

Aurors raced to their offices, pulling out maps and files of known hexes and charms. Someone suggested a Potion that utilized blood to locate a dead body while someone else recommended they just call in all Aurors and go out in pairs all across Great Britain. Tension rose as people shouted over one another in an effort to be the loudest idea. Chanyeol had to physically drag Baekhyun away from a Senior Auror who was recommending that they leave their comrades until someone send a ransom owl. A few moments later Baekhyun had to hit Chanyeol with an Incarcerous to prevent him taking a swing at the man touting the benefits of blood magic. 

_“SILENCE!”_ Singh bellowed. Everyone fell quiet, shuffling to get closer to him. “We will handle this rationally and practically. Byun and Park, you’re too close to this situation. You are on administrative leave until we recover our colleagues.”

“WHAT? You can’t possibly—”

“But Head Auror, we’re the best—”

“I said _no.”_ Singh growled. In the last minute alone, you’ve had to restrain each other from lashing out at your coworkers and I will not lose anyone because you can’t control your emotions. You will return to the office when we call you back, and not a minute sooner. Now _leave_ before I regret keeping you on at all. Kim will alert you if you are needed. Otherwise, if I see your faces in the department: you’re on indefinite probation.”

Chanyeol was as shocked as he would have been had Singh thrown him in the holding cells. In fact, he was pretty sure that would be the next step if he and Baekhyun disobeyed orders. He followed his partner back to their office; he was sure his face would be nearly as red as his hair at this point. The moment they were within the confines of their office Baekhyun whirled on him. 

“Go to the records room and take as many files as you can leave with without looking stupid. Keep working at home. You’ll drive yourself insane without something to do. Run combat drills if you can. If you let yourself think too much this week, you won’t be fit to work when we come back.”

With that, Baekhyun breezed out the door, heading straight for the records room. Chanyeol gathered the files he’d knocked over and a few that must have slid under Baekhyun’s desk. A few moments later Chanyeol saw him struggling back out with an armful of paperwork. _So much for not looking stupid_ Chanyeol thought to himself as he watched Baekhyun leave headquarters. About 20 minutes later he was through the Ministry Atrium stepping into the Floo Network to get home, laden down with enough case files to last him two weeks at least.

*+*+*+*+*+*+*

Thursday was hell. He wasn’t sleeping well at all and Jongdae hadn’t updated him since the department-wide briefing on Tuesday. Singh had everybody working to their full ability and Chanyeol was furious that he was on the bench. On the other hand, he couldn’t even go clubbing without needing to be rescued. Perhaps Singh had made the right call in his case. But Baekhyun? Baekhyun should be out there helping. He was a royal pain in the arse, but he was a brilliant strategist and an unusually gifted dueler.

Around dinner, Jongdae toppled out of the fireplace. He was covered in soot and sweat— but no blood. “I need food and a drink. I just got off a shift and I wanted to catch you up before I go home to crash.” 

He kicked off his boots and slumped into the couch. Chanyeol went to the kitchen and doled soup into two bowls. After levitating the bowls into the sitting room, he grabbed bread and a bottle of firewhisky. By the time he got to the couch, Jongdae was halfway through his soup. Chanyeol passed him the baguette and Jongdae took a huge bite out of the end. 

“That hungry?”

“Yup,” Jongdae chewed quickly and grabbed the whisky from Chanyeol taking a huge swig. “We think we found where they’re being kept today but it’s a ruddy mess. There are so many curses that Singh has five different curse breakers working overtime to make sure we can get in.” Jongdae got up and came back in with another bowl of soup.

“Then why do you look like you’ve been trampled by a herd of centaurs?” 

Jongdae took a swig of whisky from the bottle. “There are groups of Imperiused wizards and creatures that pop up on the perimeters. Seems like whatever this person’s doing is all centered on this manor— its defenses are like nothing we’ve seen. But we’re taking on the daily horrors so the curse breakers can do their work.”

They talked for a few more minutes, but when Chanyeol saw Jongdae dozing off, he sent him home to sleep. It was still early, but Chanyeol was exhausted too. He hoped desperately that he’d be able to rest well tonight. He pulled the reports to him and managed to get through one of them before his fatigue caught up to him. He took a long bath and eyed the Dreamless Sleep potion in his medicine cabinet. It was highly addictive though… he decided against it. 

_He was with Jongin again. They were walking towards the house, scanning the landscape for any movement. This would be difficult but likely very straight-forward. They both jumped at a fox then shared a wry grin at how skittish they were. They slowly creeped onto the porch casting additional shield charms around themselves as they went._

_The moment the door was open, the onslaught of curses began. He and Jongin moved together in a tight formation to drive the wizards into a corner. They were outnumbered and couldn’t risk being surrounded. A blast of orange light hit Jongin in the chest and he crumpled. Blood started pouring from his mouth and chest and he reached for Chanyeol before he stilled. With a scream Chanyeol lashed out at the wizards. When he looked around again, he was in the Forbidden Forest. He could see eyes surrounding him, but nothing came forward. The bodies of the Imperiused wizards and Jongin lay around him. It was a dream. He was dreaming._

_He put his hands in the dirt and screamed. He raged against everything. His dead colleagues and Jongin who was lying nearly lifeless in a bed. Kyungsoo who was practically living in the hospital to offer his strength to his mate. Himself for being useless and incompetent and afraid. He pulled his cloak around himself and stood up. He found a path and followed it. It didn’t matter where it went. Nothing mattered. Hours or moments later he collapsed on the forest floor. He stayed there as something nuzzled at him. It didn’t matter._

_“Roll over.”_

_Chanyeol smiled. That was Jongin’s voice. He may never get to hear it again. He rolled over. Jongin was in his full Veela form. He pecked at Chanyeol’s side, then tore a chunk of flesh off. Pain radiated out from the wound, but Chanyeol lay still. He owed Jongin this much, at least._

He jerked awake in his own bed. A quick _Tempus_ showed him it was 1:37 am. With a groan he got out of bed and went to his study. He knew it was stupid, but he needed to feel productive, so he went back to his files. After a few hours he went for a run. He felt more alive than he had in weeks, so he kept running. His mind was blissfully empty, and his body sang at the exertion. By the time he returned home, showered, and had breakfast it was an appropriate time to go visit Jongin. 

“You look like shit.” Kyungsoo had glanced up from his newspaper the moment Chanyeol had entered Jongin’s private room. 

“Cheers, mate.” Chanyeol sat down in the uncomfortable hospital chair and looked his partner over. Part of him wished Jongin would return to the horrible carnivorous Dream Jongin. At least he’d be out of hospital then. “Any news?”

“Not yet, the Unspeakables are running a new set of tests right now though. Your dreams seem to be helping. I haven’t seen Minseok looking that excited since he got his N.E.W.T. results. How’s Baekhyun?”

“Um, good, I think. I haven’t heard from him since they sent us home.”

To his surprise Kyungsoo laughed. “Leave it to you two to get banned from working this case. Though I see Singh’s point. You were already so invested, and if Baek looks anywhere as shit as you I’m sure he made the right call.”

“Sod off, you don’t look much better.” It was true. Kyungsoo looked as put-together as always, but his eyes seemed sunken in and his skin had an unhealthy pallor. Kyungsoo shrugged and glanced at Jongin.

“Sorry again.”

“Chanyeol, stop. We both know he’d have ended up dead within a fortnight with any other partner. You have always looked after him, his recklessness or naivety was bound to catch up to him eventually. I’m grateful there’s even the slimmest chance of getting him back, which there wouldn’t be if you hadn’t stopped him being crushed.”

Chanyeol nodded. He was glad Kyungsoo didn’t blame him but he still felt responsible. 

“Oh, I nearly forgot. You know that Healer who was two years above you? Healer Grant? They asked how you were doing last time they were in here. I always thought they hated Aurors on principle, but they seemed worried. If you see them, maybe duck into the loo so they don’t see how horrible you really are. I said you were fine.” Kyungsoo smirked at him. 

“Hey, I’m not that bad.”

“Go home, Yeol. Bring me some mince pies and cauldron cakes next time you come by, but you aren’t doing anybody any good staying here. I’ll see you soon.” With that, Kyungsoo returned to his paper and kicked his feet up on the end of Jongin’s bed. 

On his way back towards reception, Chanyeol ran into a group of people in Aurors robes carrying someone between them. He jogged over, ready to offer his help when he caught sight of the person in their arms. The face was marred by long lacerations, but he’d know that face anywhere— Jongdae. 

He must have made some kind of noise when slammed to a halt because a few of them glanced his way. One of the senior Aurors saw him and broke off from the crowd.

“Inferi. He’ll be alright, we think. You know Singh will skin us alive if we let you come with though. Go home, Park. They’ll never let you work even as reserve looking like that.” With a pat on the shoulder, he was gone. 

Chanyeol practically ran from St. Mungo’s. He apparated home, gabbed his piles of Hogwarts break-in cases and walked straight back out the front door.

*+*+*+*+*+*+*

“What the bloody fuck, Park?” Baekhyun was standing in the doorway, looking into his kitchen.

“We’re going over all the cases we think are relevant. Then we’re going to do something about it.”

“We were told not to do work.”

“And you’re the one who told me to grab files before I went home.”

With a raised eyebrow, Baekhyun walked away. When he came back, he set both of his stacks on the kitchen table. 

“What’s with the cornucopia?” Baekhyun was eyeing the carry-out containers covering half of his table.

“You don’t feed yourself enough when you’re stressed.”

“Should I be flattered that you pay attention?”

“Stop flirting. There’s time for that _after_ we figure this out.” An awkward pause filled the room suddenly. Chanyeol flicked his eyes up from where he’d been chronologically organizing their three piles into one. _“Holy shit. You were FLIRTING with me?”_

Baekhyun was comically flushed, determinately looking anywhere but at Chanyeol. Chanyeol gazed at him, amazed. 

“We don’t have to address it if you don’t want to.” He offered halfheartedly. He really wanted to address it— now— but he knew figuring out why they were so fixated on these cases was of greater import.

Baekhyun nodded. “If we survive the next 72 hours, I’ll discuss it.” 

Chanyeol pouted but nudged a container of curry in Baekhyun’s direction. Chanyeol finished organizing the files while Baekhyun ate. 

“Hey, I have a question.”

“What?” Baekhyun answered around a mouthful of naan. 

“All this anxiety stuff, how’re you so good at knowing what I need?”

Baekhyun paused, another chunk of bread halfway to his mouth. He set it back down. 

“My niece was really into astronomy. She always managed to convince me to take her stargazing. My brother’s family lived in the city, so we had to go quite far for the light pollution to be minimal enough to see even basic constellations. She convinced me to take her out on a full moon, once.” He got up and grabbed a bottle of wine from the fridge, pouring them each a glass. 

Chanyeol’s heart sank. He thought he knew where this was going.

“Anyway. I’m sure you can guess what happened. She got away from me while I was packing the telescope up. A werewolf had her pinned before I even saw it. She didn’t make it.” He downed the entire glass of wine. “It took me years before I could look Baekbeom and his wife in the eye.”

Chanyeol’s stomach churned, bringing bile to the back of his throat. He couldn’t imagine how much pain Baekhyun had been through, blaming himself for her death all these years. He wanted to tell Baekhyun that there wasn’t anything he could have done, but that wasn’t true. Anything that night could have gone differently and his niece would still be alive. He knew what _was_ true though. “It wasn’t your fault.”

Baekhyun looked up from glaring at his wine glass. “Doesn’t mean I couldn’t have stopped it. But thank you.”

Chanyeol packed up all the food and put it away in the fridge. He washed his wine glass and Baekhyun’s. Then he grabbed the bottle of wine and Baekhyun’s hand, walking back to the cozy little nook behind the kitchen. Baekhyun looked at him questioningly, but all Chanyeol could do was shrug. If the anxiety room was made to help Baekhyun, he figured it was the most he’d be able to do for now. They had work to do, but neither of them was in any state to work. To his surprise, he found he was far more worried about Baekhyun feeling better than he was about feeling productive. 

He and Baekhyun finished the wine, laughing and joking from opposite sides of the bed. When they weren’t at each other’s throats, he found they had so much in common. When Baekhyun teased him, he laughed. When Baekhyun told him stories, he listened. And when Baekhyun pressed himself to Chanyeol, searching, yearning, Chanyeol eagerly reciprocated. He held Baekhyun close and fucked him into the mattress until Baekhyun’s come splashed between them. Later, as he fell asleep with Baekhyun tucked into his chest, he realized how at peace he felt.

*+*+*+*+*+*+*

“I FIGURED IT OUT!!”

Chanyeol rolled over with a groan, hands searching for Baekhyun. He found a leg and wrapped himself around it. 

“Park Chanyeol, you wake up this _instant_ or I’ll curse your prick off.”

“Don’t! ‘M up, I’m up.” He had jerked upright at Baekhyun’s threat and blinked a few times to focus. Baekhyun was sitting beside him on the bed with all their joint files spread out around them. A silver web connected about a dozen files and those seemed to be the ones Baekhyun was riffling through. 

“I wouldn’t, you’re more useful to me with it attached.” Baekhyun muttered, tapping his wand at various details on a file by Chanyeol’s foot.

“Wait! You _figured it out_ figured it out?”

“No, you twat, I just said that to wake you up. Merlin, keep up. Of _course_ I figured it out!”

Chanyeol flopped back on his pillow. “’Course you did. You’re the smart one.”

Baekhyun shot him a glare. After a few moments of silence, he coughed and started knocking off the files that weren’t attached to the silver web. “It’s going to take some getting used to. You complimenting me sincerely.”

“I can keep acting like an arse if you want.” Chanyeol offered. Baekhyun simply shot him a glare. “Uh, question. If you worked out what the pattern is, then why aren’t we going anywhere?”

“I sent an emergency memo through to Singh’s office. We’ll hear when he gets back to us. Breakfast?”

Chanyeol nodded eagerly. He was starved. He reached for Baekhyun, kissing his face and neck and neck until he was a giggling mess. He reached for Baekhyun’s prick but was batted away. 

“No more sex until we talk, and we aren’t talking until this lunatic is dead or behind bars.”

Chanyeol pouted but understood. “Can I suck you off?”

Baekhyun laughed. “I’d love to say yes, but no. You can make me breakfast though. How’s that for compromise?”

Chanyeol rolled out of bed and opened the door. “Sounds like a lose-lose to me.”

Over bacon, eggs, sausages, and toast Baekhyun explained how he believed someone was going after the Deathly Hallows. Based on the unsolved cases they’d gone over, it seemed that someone already had the Elder Wand and the Cloak of Invisibility. They had come from the tomb by the Great Lake and the robbery at Potter’s respectively. The Resurrection Stone seemed to be holding them up.

“But it would make sense then, yeah? All those break-ins in the Forbidden Forest? Because that’s where Tom Riddle thought he killed Potter and there were rumors that Potter had all three! What if he lost the Stone in there?”

“Baek, the Hallows are a story for children.”

“No.” Baekhyun said it so firmly that Chanyeol almost shied away. “They aren’t”

“How do you know?”

Baekhyun looked sheepish. “Okay, I recognize this is a pattern for me. And like, it really shouldn’t be but… I really didn’t mean to in this case! And he’s forgiven me for it. Though, he doesn’t know _all_ of what I saw…”

“Baekhyun!”

“Right. Um. Minseok and Junmyeon did their Unspeakable admittance project thing on proving the stories from _The Tales of Beedle the Bard_ were all true.”

“I’m sorry, _WHAT??”_

“Well, they can’t talk about it, but you know how everyone, well, _knows_ they have that initiation project? That was theirs. And I saw it when I was having a really rough time over my niece.”

“Those correlate how?”

“I was having a panic attack in Mungo’s. I told you they’re pants with Mind Healing there. Anyway, I think my subconscious decided that my mind wasn’t a great place to be, so it decided to go into someone else’s. And Junmyeon was there with me. He was thinking about their project because someone said reading me children’s stories may calm me down— honestly, like children’s stories would have even registered in my mind then— but right, they mentioned them and he was thinking about how much it would blow my mind that they’re all true and wishing he could tell me and…” He trailed off looking nervous. 

“Honestly. Whoever taught you Legilimency should be fed to dragons. You’re a bloody menace with it. But also, this is insanely useful.” 

Baekhyun perked up at Chanyeol’s apparent lack of fury. “So you don’t hate me? I promise I didn’t mean to. And I really was worried when it was you. I just… didn’t know what else to do.”

“No puppy eyes yet, Byun. We still have this case to solve before we talk anything out. But I’m not mad. Knowing this is a huge help.” Baekhyun gave him a tentative smile. “Wait, so does this mean that stupid Battle of Hogwarts tell all gossip rag had it right that Potter had a ‘good luck rock’ with him when he went into the Forest?”

“Seems so. And your beloved Potter must’ve lost it.”

“Honestly, from what people said about his personality, he may have just dropped it assuming that the world would forget the Hallows existed. And we _would have_ if it weren’t for that insipid writer’s stupid exposé on ‘The Boy That Died Twice’ and that Battle gossip shite.”

“I feel very uncomfortable knowing I was fucked by such a Potterhead… And are you admitting that Potter was stupid for just dropping the stone? Isn’t that against the Gryffindor bylaws? Insulting the Scar like that?” Baekhyun looked far too amused.

“Sod off. I just made you breakfast. And Potter was naïve, okay. Everyone knows that.” 

With a shrug, Baekhyun starting in on the dishes. Everything felt beautifully domestic. “Not entirely her fault— if you actually paid any attention in History of Magic, they said Riddle and Potter both were going on about the Elder Wand and its allegiance. It’s basically the reason the war ended like it did. Popular opinion was spun that they were speaking metaphorically. Though, it seems pretty obvious they weren’t. But of course, you probably thought Potter was the better dueler or some shite.”

Chanyeol decided not to tell Baekhyun that he actually had believed that Potter was the better dueler. “So, what do we do when Singh gets back to us?”

“Well, I figure we reach out to the Headmistress and get permission to be in the Forest until we find the Stone or the prick going after it.”

“Should we try to reach out to the centaur herd? They may know something.”

“Sure, but let’s not put the carriage before the thestral, yeah?”

Chanyeol nodded. They chatted for a bit and had just started a game of exploding snap when a letter came shooting from the fireplace. Baekhyun knocked the cards askew running for the rug and they all exploded in Chanyeol’s face as he vaulted over the table to get their instructions. When he made it to Baekhyun’s side, he already looked shell-shocked. 

“What is it, Baekhyun?”

Baekhyun shoved the letter to Chanyeol and abruptly stood. Chanyeol looked at the letter, his stomach already churning.

_I have discussed this with several other Senior Aurors. We do not feel this information is relevant to the current situation. The greatest flaw in your argument being the lack of tie-in to anything current. We will look into your theory once the current case is resolved, no one can be spared at the moment. DO NOT PROCEED. DO NOT ENGAGE. Your leave is still effective. I trust you know not to disobey a direct order. Will be in touch soon._

_Singh_

Chanyeol incinerated the parchment with a flick of his wand. This was such complete and utter shit. He stormed to the kitchen and found Baekhyun hunched over a piece of parchment. He was scribbling furiously. A few moments later, he signed off on it and sealed it with wax. With a whistle, an owl swooped in from the direction of Baekhyun’s study. He fastened the note to the owl’s leg and sent it off with an affectionate stroke to its head. 

“I’m still requesting permission from Headmistress Jordan.”

Chanyeol nodded. He couldn’t believe Singh was so short sighted. Sure, there was a lot happening at HQ he was sure, but if the houses and failed raid were a red herring… then this was likely when their criminal was doing their best to get their hands on the Stone. He could see where logically Singh didn’t see any value in their theory… but he was known for trusting the intuition of his Aurors. Only now, he seemed to think they were fabricating this to feel important. He felt sick. What if they were?

“Hey, was Junmyeon thinking of the Deathly Hallows when you slipped in his mind?”

“Hm? Oh, no. He was thinking of the Fountain of Fair Fortune. They found it, that’s why I was tracking historical places of significance too.”

“So how long have you known?”

“I didn’t until this morning when I remembered that people joked about Potter’s emotional support rock. Then looking over your cases, I remembered that James Potter said something about his dad’s clothes being taken. But in the story the cloak passes father to son. So, that tied it back to another Hallow.”

“Well, I’ll say it again- you’re bloody brilliant Baekhyun.”

Baekhyun flushed. Chanyeol went about the kitchen making and packing enough food to last them a few days. Baekhyun made himself busy checking over his overnight stake-out gear: refreshing the protection spells and concealment charms. 

Just after a lunch of sandwiches and tea, Baekhyun’s owl soared into the kitchen from the open window. Baekhyun let the owl land on his shoulder and quickly untied the scroll. He was silent for a few moments, then his hand shot out and he gripped Chanyeol’s forearm. 

“She says the centaur’s have been reporting unusual activity this week. She opened the Floo in her office and has requested that we come as soon as possible.”

Chanyeol jumped up and grabbed their gear. He and Baekhyun were through the Floo, tumbling into Headmistress Lee’s office within 5 minutes. 

“You both understand that while I’m glad you’re here, should the Head Auror request a statement—”

“We arrived and acted of our own volition. Yes, we’re aware Headmistress.” Baekhyun assured her.

“Very well. Kadmus will be waiting at the edge of the Forest to point you in the proper direction. I will escort you out of the castle.”

They walked along the familiar halls, portraits and students chatting and bustling about. It seemed they’d arrived between classes. The noise and chaos of Hogwarts wrapped itself around Chanyeol. He smiled; he had always loved Hogwarts. The blending of safety and danger, structure and freedom had always made him feel like he could achieve anything. Now he was being escorted through the school while on leave from work after being told to stay home like a good boy by his boss. He grinned to himself, some people just never grew up. He was glad he hadn’t changed too much. 

They crossed the Entrance Hall and down the steps onto the grounds. Glancing at Baekhyun he looked a bit lost in his thoughts as well. Someday they’d have to reminisce about their school days when they didn’t see everything as a way to insult one another. But, as they drew nearer the Forest, he remembered today was not that day. 

Kadmus was a stern centaur who turned and began walking slowly into the Forest as they neared him. 

“He doesn’t speak.” Headmistress Lee informed them. “Take no offense when he leaves without saying anything.”

They nodded and followed the centaur into the woods. He led them through the trees, gnarled roots catching their shoes and barbed branches nipping their hands. All was silent besides their walking. 

“Is it normal to be so quiet in this part of the Forest?” Chanyeol asked. The centaur shook its head and led them deeper. The trees were thick enough that it felt like twilight had arrived hours early.

“She’s wrong.” Kadmus spoke quietly, his voice soothing and deep. “I speak only to men when the stars indicate I ought to. Before tomorrow’s moon sets, you will have need of my words.” He glanced up at the heavens, frowning slightly. They walked on for a few moments in silence, then Baekhyun apparently lost patience. 

“And what words are those?”

Kadmus gave a small start, as if he had forgotten they were with him still. “I am no sphinx, with a riddle to tell. But the stars can be read both poorly and well.” He allowed himself a smile. Chanyeol wanted to giggle at the rhyme, but he didn’t think Baekhyun would appreciate him derailing Kadmus’s train of thought. “The path can be changed with the help of your ilk. Though I cannot speak to whom you need, it is imperative you choose well. The place Harry Potter died is through those trees. I will not go farther— the clearing is watched.”

He turned from them and began walking away. After a few paces he paused and turned his face back to the sky. “Should Mars wish to guide you, do not turn from him.” He squinted and tipped his head further back. “Mars will be very bright.”

With those words, he walked off. Despite the sun’s bleak rays shining through the trees, Chanyeol lost sight of him after just a few moments. Without hesitation, Baekhyun began casting protective charms and enchantments. He walked in a circle as he did so, giving Chanyeol an excellent view of his arse.

“Set up camp or I’ll make you sleep in a hollowed-out tree.”

Chanyeol saluted the back of Baekhyun’s head and went about pitching their tent and reinforcing the atmospheric protection charms. Once they finished, they had a quick lunch of fruit and cheese then set out parchment to begin maps tracking where they had checked. One they had basic maps and scales worked out they used the rest of their daylight to stash essence of dittany in various locations towards the clearing and in the areas surrounding it. They placed a few protective charms around the trees and rocks concealing the dittany. 

Chanyeol made them dinner as Baekhyun fleshed out the maps they’d begun that day. He added in some notable landmarks and marked the locations where they’d stashed the dittany. As he was wrapping up, Chanyeol handed him a plate with sausages and vegetable soup. They ate in comfortable silence, then Baekhyun sent Chanyeol off to get a few hours of sleep. 

They expected their criminal to do the majority of their work in the late night or early morning and were hoping to sleep accordingly. Chanyeol woke up to relieve Baekhyun just as a mist rolled through the Forest. As he headed into their tent, Baekhyun gently caught Chanyeol’s sleeve. 

“Will this be alright? I can take a few potions to help keep me awake and work through the night with you.”

His eyes were open and kind, if concerned. For a moment, Chanyeol didn’t get what he meant. Then the eerie howls and rustling settled into his mind along with the unnerving fog. He breathed in through his nose, out through his mouth.

“It’s different enough that I’ll be alright. Thank you.” Before Baekhyun could swat him away, he ducked down to place a kiss on Baekhyun’s cheek. With a soft laugh, Baekhyun left him to slip into their tent.

He wandered to the fallen tree he had been using as a bench. The centaur’s words ringing in his ears. Professor Lee was certainly considered a friend to the herd, so if Kadmus spoke to them and not her he _knew_ how important the words he gave them must be. The only trouble was, he couldn’t sort them out. 

Clearly, they needed help. Only, they didn’t have a way to subtly contact anyone. They had no owl and Patronuses were far from discreet. Not to mention, the Aurors likely wouldn’t have anyone free to come to their aid unless they had wrapped things up with their colleagues who had been taken. And Singh would be furious that they had disobeyed his orders. Though, the head Auror’s wrath was better than dying, he supposed. The school seemed like a poor choice as well. Neither of them was close enough to any current professors… and students were out of the question. That left them with contacting friends. 

Jongin and Jongdae would have been his first move in any other situation, but as they were currently indisposed, perhaps he ought to consider Baekhyun’s friends? Kyungsoo would be with Jongin still, but could Kadmus have meant the Unspeakables Junmyeon and Minseok? Or was it the bartender Yixing? All he knew is if they sent of a Patronus they’d need to do so while the fog was still thick, probably near dawn when the light began breaking through trees. They couldn’t send more than one or two either, something that bright and magically potent wasn’t exactly discreet. 

The afterthought of Mars bothered him as well. If the centaur wasn’t prone to speaking unless it was significant— he wouldn’t have mentioned Mars unless they needed to hear it. Right? He wanted to work this out before Baekhyun woke back up, but he hated Astronomy. As a muggle-born, he’d confused Astronomy with Astrology for nearly two years. And he still honestly preferred Astrology. He even picked up muggle newspapers once in a while to check his horoscope. Once, in fifth year, he had tried using his knowledge of Astronomy to determine the similarities in Astrology. He’d gotten a headache 13 minutes in. He had, however memorized the… 

He sat straight up with a start. The planets ruling the different astrological signs. Would that make sense? Mars… Mars was Aries. Did he know anyone who was an Aries? He ran through a list of people he knew. After 20 minutes of cataloging everyone who’s birthdays he knew, he only had Sehun as an Aries. He looked to the sky. Mars was visible, peeking through the canopy.

There were several other people he thought Kadmus’s words may have been referring to, but he didn’t definitively know their birthdays. A few hours before sunrise, he went to wake Baekhyun. After explaining his theory Baekhyun nodded. 

“Minseok. He’s Aries too.”

“Okay, and we think they’re the most likely?”

“I mean, I think your interpretation makes the most sense. I tried to make the connection earlier, but this seems much more… I guess in line with how centaurs often phrase things?”

“Yeah, plus we have nothing better to work with, right?”

“That’s the spirit!” Baekhyun clapped him on the back and sent him a wink. 

A twig snapped behind them and they whirled around, wands raised. Once he took in the sight before them, he relaxed. A unicorn and its foal walked side by side along the outskirts of their camp. The white and gold shone beautifully through the fog and darkness. 

“If there’s ever been a chance to send off a Patronus in the dark, it’s now…” Baekhyun breathed. 

“Mine’s a greyhound.”

“Thestral.” Baekhyun responded. 

Chanyeol turned so fast he got a crick in his neck. Gently massaging it, he asked: “Wasn’t it a cat or something?”

Baekhyun gave him a pointed look. “Yes, it _was._ Can you think of nothing in my life that may have resulted in it changing to be a symbol of death?”

Chanyeol ducked his head. “Yours will look most like the unicorns, right? You cast.”

Baekhyun snorted. “You’re fine, Quaffle-head. And yeah. Minseok probably has a better chance of getting ahold of Sehun than the vice versa.” He seemed to be talking to himself, so Chanyeol stayed quiet until he’d sent the thestral trotting off after the unicorns. When it reached them, it took flight. 

“It’s beautiful, you know.” He tugged Baekhyun to his chest and kissed the top of his head. 

“Sod off, sap. We’re not doing this until we survive the next 48 hours.”

“More like 44 at this point.”

“Is that _really_ what we should be focusing on right now?”

Chanyeol shrugged. It felt so noncommittal, but he felt energy thrumming through him with no outlet. “I think I’m allowed to offer my future boyfriend a little physical comfort when he’s thinking too deeply.”

“Really? You think we’re going to—”

“No, I was just holding off ditching you until after we’d caught the lunatic. This way, if I die, you get to play the mourning lover.”

“Okay, someone reads way too many romance novels.”

Chanyeol grinned, squeezing around his waist quickly before letting him go. They lapsed into silence, scanning the forest for movement or any noise. Thirty minutes later, Baekhyun started grumbling. 

“This is so bloody pointless. The centaurs can tell something is off, but that doesn’t mean that they’re not five feet from us, completely undetectable and laughing their arse off at the two Aurors who popped in yesterday.”

“Hey, don’t get like that. We knew this going in. We’ll poke around more in the daylight, yeah?”

Baekhyun reached back and squeezed his hand. “Thanks. I need that sometimes. Soo is a bit more brusque when I get in my head, but he was always here to pull me out. I lash out a bit without that.”

“You don’t say.”

Baekhyun hit his arm, grinning. Slowly, the night faded, gently lightening the woods around them. The fog receded and a new day began. They spent the first hours of daylight checking their safe spots then returned to their camp. They disillusioned each other and went back out, casting detection spells as they crept nearer and nearer to the clearing. They stuck together, last night they decided they’d be safer if they worked side by side. Every hour or so, they refreshed their disillusionment charms and added a few protective spells. 

By late afternoon, they had cleared a path to the outskirts of the clearing where Potter had handed himself to Tom Riddle. Baekhyun tugged his cloak and they returned to their little camp. After a quick dinner, Baekhyun ushered Chanyeol into the tent. It was dusk, and he they were trying to get more than three hours of sleep. He felt uneasy, but sleep was the best thing he could do.

His dream was transient, foreboding. He would hear someone scream, then turn and see a grindylow smirking at him from the Lake. A strangled shout rent the air and a bowtruckle looked up from a human face— blood dripping from their eyes and its long fingers. 

Chanyeol woke after about five hours of restless sleep. Baekhyun crouched over him, peering into his eyes. 

“I’m fine, Baek. Bad dreams, not flashbacks.” To his shock, Baekhyun’s face fell. “What the fuck, that’s a good thing!”

“No, I know that’s a good thing!” Baekhyun hurriedly sat back on his heels. “It’s just that your flashbacks usually give us more information.”

With a half-hearted glare, Chanyeol left his sleeping bag and went to keep a lookout. Baekhyun was right, of course, but that didn’t mean he had to be so obviously displeased that Chanyeol hadn’t dreamt of that night again. 

He picked up a nearby stick, twiddling it between his fingers. They hadn’t discovered anything more severe than a few stinging jinxes and one that had left Baekhyun dangling upside down until he’d tried to walk. Yet again, Chanyeol was struck with the worry that things were too simple. He knew they were on the correct path to _something_ but the feeling that they’d gone against the Head Auror over nothing was mounting. Only Kadmus’s words kept him certain they weren’t fully wasting their time. One glance at the sky showed Mars blinking at him again.

Something rustled behind him. Heart in his throat, he whirled around. A large wolf stalked through the trees behind their camp. It was too far away for Chanyeol to see if it was a werewolf or a standard wolf. Something moved ahead of it and the beast lunged. When it looked up with a rabbit hanging limp in its jaws, Chanyeol swore it met his eyes before slinking off. 

He spent the rest of his watch transfiguring leaves and twigs into tiny functional tents— just the proper size for a mouse, should one need a safe place to rest. He was sure to be vigilant, but nothing else out of the ordinary happened until Baekhyun tripped out of the tent, complaining that Chanyeol had let him sleep too long. They had hard boiled eggs they’d preserved for breakfast, along with some dried fruit. 

“Into the clearing today, you reckon?”

“Yeah.” Baekhyun responded. “We can’t just wait around and expect them to show themselves.” 

Once again, they prepared themselves and checked their caches. Chanyeol distributed his little tents among them, much to Baekhyun’s amusement. Soon— far too soon for Chanyeol’s liking— they were at the clearing where Tom Riddle had killed Harry Potter. Though their detection spells didn’t find anything dangerous, Chanyeol had the distinct impression that they were completely in over their heads. The clearing was enchanted, the nature of the magic inside hidden until they breached the enchantments themselves. 

With a final glance at each other, they began dismantling the web of spells. For an hour, they worked. Sweat gathered on Chanyeol’s brow and he pushed his sleeves up past his elbows. They encountered a new layer that felt more powerful. Several minutes in, a volatile hex whipped out at each of them. Chanyeol deflected it, but when he looked down, he saw blood welling in his hand. Several feet in front of him Baekhyun was looking at a laceration running along his palm as well. 

He only just had time to realize that seeing Baekhyun meant that their disillusionment had failed before his blood dripped to the Forest floor. The dome of magic surrounding the clearing fell with a cacophonous roar.

*+*+*+*+*+*+*

There was nothing there. The clearing looked the exact same now as it had through the enchantments they had broken. The old Acromantula nest, the sparse weeds and remnants of web. Chanyeol quickly healed his palm, checking that Baekhyun was doing the same. When their eyes met, confusion shone from Baekhyun’s expression. They took up a stance together, searching the clearing methodically until a smooth voice interrupted them.

_“Expelliarmus.”_

Chanyeol made a grab for his wand. He was too late, of course. It soared from his grasp towards the hollow where a massive web stood tribute to its previous inhabitants. Chanyeol squinted to see the figure that was approaching.

Head Auror Singh prowled towards them, their wands clutched in his hand. “Well done, lads. Well done.” 

Chanyeol’s mind completely failed him, watching his boss sauntering through the Forbidden Forest. At their expressions Singh laughed. The noise made the hairs on the back of Chanyeol’s neck rise. 

Baekhyun recovered first. “What the bloody fuck are you playing at? Don’t you realize you’ve killed—”

Singh waved an arm and Baekhyun’s voice cut off abruptly. “Don’t be stupid. You’ve been so clever up to this point.” Chanyeol leapt at their boss, crashing to the ground inches from him, bound in ropes. Singh smiled down at him. “You don’t truly believe that your drone of a boss could be behind all this could you? Polyjuice, my darlings. Polyjuice.” He tapped his nose as he spoke, like a teacher explaining a particularly intricate spell to a favored pupil.

Chanyeol wriggled in his bonds, but with his movement, they constricted. 

“Let me go!” He snarled. Baekhyun shook his head vigorously, motioning for him to shut up. 

The impersonator smiled. “Touching, truly. You started so at odds with one another. Shouldn’t you be thanking me for bringing you closer together?”

 _Of course. Of course, Chanyeol should be thanking this man. Without him, Baekhyun would still hate him!_ Chanyeol relaxed, there was a pleasant warmth pulling the worries from his— NO. Mentally, he ripped himself from the Imperious Curse. The ropes around him twitched. 

“Oh, good, _very good!”_ The person above him smiled indulgently down at Chanyeol. Baekhyun was slowly inching his way out of the impersonator’s line of sight. “Of course, you’re brimming with questions, I suppose?” 

Baekhyun was now about 20 paces from their opponent. Chanyeol _had_ to keep their attention on him. “Yes.” He gasped out. “Who are you?”

“Who am I? Of the questions you’re dying to ask, you want to know who I am? NO, Chanyeol, no. Who I am doesn’t matter, don’t you see? I’ve been so many people coming and going. Who I am doesn’t change _what_ I am. Or what I can do.” His restraints tightened and released— rope burn searing along his exposed patches of skin.

Baekhyun had crept forward incrementally. This could work. “Fine, then what are you?”

“No, you asked who I am. My name is Brook. But everyone is a Brook. Do you know how many Brooks there are in England? You see? Even in my own skin I am no one and everyone and ever changing.”

Chanyeol’s head hurt. There were leaves behind Brook, Baekhyun was advancing painfully slowly, but in a few moments, he’d be near enough to tackle Brook. Chanyeol did his best not to focus too directly on him. 

“And have you found it?” Chanyeol asked. “The Resurrection Stone?”

Brook tipped Singh’s head to the side. “Yes, now that’s a question worth asking for you, isn’t it?” He starred unerringly at Chanyeol. “Yes, I know where the Stone is. You’re really quite fit. Aren’t you? I can see what you see in him Baekhyun darling.”

Right as Baekhyun snuck within range of Brook, they turned Singh’s face to regard him coolly, the wands directed at Chanyeol’s face. “Careful how you proceed. Wouldn’t want me to end the fun too early, would we?” 

Baekhyun froze. Brook glanced at the wands in their grasp. He selected Chanyeol’s and pointed it towards Baekhyun, keeping the others trained on Chanyeol. 

“What do you want?” Chanyeol asked. Having his wand trained threateningly on Baekhyun, even in another’s grasp, had his stomach churning horribly. 

“To play! Who knows how to play Muggle chess?” Brook took several paces to the side, putting both Baekhyun and Chanyeol in their line of sight. The rapturous smile looked wrong on their boss’s face. “No, I’m going to rule the world. Didn’t they teach you that in training? Everybody wants to rule the world.”

An icy fear lanced through his gut. This person was absolutely mad. “How? With the Hallows? You can’t have found the Stone, or you wouldn’t still be here searching for it!” He let his false confidence bleed through his declaration. Though, he was hoping he was right. If Brook had found the Stone, there was no reason for them to be here. But did reason matter anymore?

“You’re practically torturing yourself; your mind is moving so quickly. Don’t spoil it for me.” Brook looked elated. “Daddy enjoys his fun too.” He and Baekhyun shared a look. Brook was male then? That could narrow a list of suspects down. In a sing-song voice he added. “Which game, which game?”

Brook turned all three wands on Baekhyun. With a yell, Chanyeol trashed and writhed to fight off the ropes binding him. They traveled to his neck and slowly, sinuously wrapped themselves around his throat. Baekhyun’s scream burst from him, fighting off the silencing charm. With another casual wave of Brook’s hand and a flick of the wands, Baekhyun fell silent and succumbed to a nonverbal _tarantallegra,_ leaving him dancing madly on the spot. His wide, stricken eyes met Chanyeol’s.

A surge of fury blazed through him and the bindings fell off him in a heap. He lashed his remaining power at Brook, who deflected the unfocused magic with a frown. 

“No.” Brook whined. “No, no, no, this is no fun. Stop being so predictable.” He looked like a petulant child. Chanyeol lunged for him again and was again brushed aside like a fly. A strong force pinned him to the damp earth. “STOP IT.” Brook roared. A dangerous glint to his eye, Brook glanced at Baekhyun, dancing silently just out of Chanyeol’s reach. Tears slipped down Baekhyun’s cheeks. 

“You want predictable? You want to be _boring?_ Fine, what’s more predictable than the bad guy,” Brook bowed with a flourish, “forcing lovers to see each other suffer?” He looked between them. A saccharine voice, smooth and lilting began a chant in his mind. _Teeny, meanie, whiny, toy. The garden gnome bites which boy?_ As the voice faded, Brook’s eyes landed on Chanyeol.

Hooks slipped beneath his skin, tugging in a thousand directions. He screamed, blood pouring from where they entered and exited his body. He writhed in the dirt, the open sores from the ropes searing as his body futilely attempted to escape the torment. Distantly, he registered Baekhyun sobbing _stop it, please! STOP! We’ll do—_ before Brook silenced him again. 

The hooks reversed their paths, ripping exit wounds through his weeping skin. Eyes trained on his hand, he noted that the wounds were real, though the hooks themselves didn’t seem to be. His chest heaved as the pain receded. Chanyeol tried to move and found he couldn’t. There was no strength nor magic left in him to fight. He could only hope to live.

“Do you want to know why I’m here, sexy?” Leaves crunched as Brook advanced on him. He dropped down in the dirt next to Chanyeol’s shoulder. A loving hand brushed the tears from Chanyeol’s cheek. Brook hummed as he licked them from his fingers. “I’m here because you two figured it out. You two realized that my houses were just for show.”

Brook drew his knees to his chest and draped his arms over them. “See, that’s the trouble with Aurors, I’ve found. You all want everything to be clever. It’s been right in front of you all for ages. Yet you two were the first to realize that I’m after the Hallows.” Brook dropped a hand to pet through Chanyeol’s hair. “I was so proud, boys. So proud. _Finally,_ I had someone fun to play with. Finally, someone could learn the truth! I bet you loved it, didn’t you? Thinking you’d worked out my real plot? Well, I couldn’t just disappoint you. So, I made sure to be here. I wanted to see your faces when you found the Stone!”

Brook paused. The sound of Baekhyun’s still-dancing feet was the only thing breaking the eerie silence in the wood. “But of course, you could never find the Stone. It’s been locked in the Department of Mysteries for well on a decade.” 

Chanyeol’s breath sounded labored to his own ears. Had the hooks punctured his lungs?

“Shh, shh shh… easy now Chanyeol. Easy. You don’t want poor Baekhyun to think that your death was painful, do you?” Brook slipped behind Chanyeol and lifted his head into his lap. “Can you see him, Chanyeol? He’s still dancing. A bit of an odd thing to do while your partner dies, don’t you think?” Brook’s tone was light, happy. For all the concern he showed, they could have been discussing the migration of pixies. 

When Chanyeol’s vision swam into focus, he could make out Baekhyun. His feet tapped out a grueling pattern, wincing each time the right made contact with the ground. His face was beet red. Fury and defeat warred in his eyes. _Beautiful until the end_ Chanyeol noted.

“Shall we have you dance upon his grave, sweet Baekhyun?” Brook asked. Chanyeol couldn’t see his face but based on Baekhyun’s, they were having some mental standoff. Brook pressed a hand to the wounds above Chanyeol’s heart, slowing his death. “You boys did so well. But I can’t have you carrying on anymore. You understand, of course. It was delightful, watching you. But now you’re in my way.”

Chanyeol knew his death was near. There were voices calling out to them: Jongin, Jongdae and Sehun among them. His heart broke. If they were coming to escort greet him in Death, that must mean that they had died themselves. They had failed. They had fucked up. And they hadn’t been able to save Jongin. He hadn’t been able to save Jongin.

Beneath him, Brook tensed. “I’m so sorry. I had rather hoped we’d be uninterrupted. Just a moment.” A whip of purple flame hit Baekhyun squarely in the chest. His legs finally calmed as he fell to the ground, unmoving. A wet sob forced its way up Chanyeol’s throat. He tasted blood.

Brook stood abruptly. Chanyeol’s head lolled to the side as he was knocked away. He could see one of Baekhyun’s hands, twisted at an odd angle. As Brook’s footsteps faded, Chanyeol forced himself towards Baekhyun, uncaring of the trail of crimson he left behind him. His body failed mere inches from Baekhyun’s broken form. Panting, he tried to focus on the stars to keep him grounded. Staring at the sky, it took him a moment to recognize that it was still day. Funny. He could have sworn they’d been here for days. Perhaps they had. A hysterical giggle burst from him as his eyes locked in on a disruption in the day’s sky. _Venus_ his weary mind supplied. _Venus is as strong as Mars_ he thought deliriously. That was his last thought before he let his eyes fall closed, embracing the emptiness.

*+*+*+*+*+*+*

Death was strange. His friends’ voices surrounded him sporadically, but no matter how he tried he couldn’t seem to reach them in the afterlife. Was this punishment for his failures in life? Knowing he was the reason they died and never being able to reach them? Never being allowed to apologize? Slowly, after numerous arguments that her heard but couldn’t understand, he blinked.

Chanyeol shifted. He was warm, groggy. Somewhere in the nearby vicinity he heard the scraping of a quill on parchment. He began to tense and release his muscles, small movements that would give him an idea as to his physical wellbeing. He was sore, certainly. However, everything seemed to be functioning fine. There were no restraints preventing movement, so he deduced that he was safe. At St. Mungo’s, then. 

He slowly blinked his eyes open, squinting against the light filling the room. There was a Healer checking their notes against the roll of parchment at the foot of his bed. The beds beside him were empty. Panic gripped him as he realized Baekhyun should be here with him. With a jolt, he sat up. The room spun and crashed off the bed. 

“OI! PARK!” The Healer levitated him back into bed, grumbling to themselves. “I swear your bloody heroics are going to be the death of me.”

“Where’s—” 

They looked at him with genuine compassion in their eyes. “He’s alive, Park. They’re not sure if he’s going to make it, but he’s on the fourth floor. I’ll take you there myself if you just let me finish these tests.”

Chanyeol lay back, staring at the ceiling. He was alive. Baekhyun was alive. Were the others okay? Or had their voices been his imagination running rampant? How had they escaped? What were the odds that Singh would ever let him back into the field? He clasped his hands to keep from fidgeting. A pair of new scars caught his eye— twin spirals from his wrist to his elbows, where the rope had twisted along his bare skin.

Boisterous laughter reached his ears, interspersed with conversation that grew louder and louder. Chanyeol’s heart nearly stopped when Kyungsoo walked in— Jongin perched on his back. Minseok, Junmyeon, Sehun and Jongdae followed with a face Chanyeol vaguely recognized as Yixing, Baekhyun’s friend. Based on the interlaced hands, he and Jongdae were close now too. They quieted incrementally when they realized Chanyeol was watching them.

“Hey!” Jongin cheered, smiling widely. “Look who’s awake!”

“I could say the same.” If Chanyeol hadn’t already found the new scars, he’d be convinced he was dead. “Last I knew, you were still doing your best imitation of a basilisk victim.”

“Yeah, got bored.” 

“Good. I missed you Nini.” 

“Missed you too!”

“You did not.” Kyungsoo groused. “You were unconscious.” Jongin flicked Kyungsoo’s nose.

“So, um. What happened with Brook?” Chanyeol steeled himself for the worst-case scenario.

Jongdae perched on the edge of Chanyeol’s bed, Yixing following suit and sending him a shy smile. Chanyeol decided he liked the bartender. “Well, we got him.” Jongdae said simply.

“I mean,” Sehun added, “it wasn’t exactly easy, and you two took about thirty years off my lifespan, but we he’s at the Ministry in the top security holding cells until his trial.”

“Really?” Chanyeol breathed in relief. That was far better than he had dared to hope.

“Yeah.” Minseok spoke up for the first time, his eyes narrowed to slits. “Next time you’re tracking down a murderous nut in the Forbidden Forest, can you be more specific?”

“Huh?”

“Chanyeol.” Junmyeon chided. “Baekhyun’s Patronus told us to come to the clearing where Potter died. Do you have _any_ idea how hard that information is to get? Even Potter didn’t know how he got there! We spent nearly 17 hours running around the Forest to find you!”

Chanyeol flushed. He hadn’t considered that the centaurs weren’t likely to be on the lookout for their friends. Or that they may not care to help even if they’d crossed paths. “Let me off the hook cause you feel sorry for me?”

His friends chuckled, giving him looks with varying degrees of exasperation.

“Yeah. Uh. You may have to speak at Brook’s trial though. Just, for the record.”

Fear surged up his gut. If he never saw Brook again it would be too soon. Although, if he could help bring the man to justice, he knew he’d be there. He cracked a weak smile, squeezing the hand Jongdae reached towards him.

“Okay, as touching as this reunion is,” Kyungsoo huffed, shifting Jongin on his back, “We’re here to go with you to visit Baek and my back hurts. That can’t be good for me, can it Healer?”

The Healer shot him a venomous look. “I’ve told you not to involve me in your marital disputes. Humorous or otherwise.”

“Aw, c’mon.” Jongin wheedled. “You know you’ll miss us when we’re gone.”

“Auror Kim, I am suffering under _no_ delusions that you and your cohort will refrain from landing yourselves in my hospital wing for any extended period of time.”

Jongdae giggled, pressing himself close to Yixing. “They make a fair point, you know.”

“Yeah, back to my back. Still hurts. Can we go?”

With a long-suffering sigh, the Healer tapped Chanyeol’s bed to make it levitate. They followed his friends through the hospital up to the fourth floor. When they pushed their way into the ward Chanyeol immediately strained to look around. Only one bed was occupied. He had been so wrong in his last moments of consciousness, Baekhyun wasn’t beautiful. Baekhyun was etheral. Even lying still as the grave, his silver hair fanning around him gave him the appearance of a Veela. There were bandages holding his upper body in place, and there was a complicated chart detailing medication times above his bed. Chanyeol’s eyes welled with tears. The Healer positioned his bed beside Bakehyun’s.

Yixing was the first to speak. “Who wants to go get everyone some tea?” His eyes darted to Chanyeol’s face and he looked imploringly back at the others. 

“Yes!” Jongin wiggled from Kyungsoo’s back. “Tea! I’ve missed tea!”

“Nini, you just ruined it.”

“I ruin nothing, you sorry excuse for a mate.” He softened the sarcasm with a kiss to the top of Kyungsoo’s head.

Once everyone had filed out, Kyungsoo complaining the whole way, Chanyeol looked back to Baekhyun. He wanted to rage at the world that once again he was alright— relatively speaking— and his partner was in danger of slipping away. He had no idea how long he’d been unconscious, but considering the extent of his own injuries, he knew it must have been a few days at least. Gently, he rested his hand on Baekhyun’s. It had been healed, along with the rest of his injuries. An image of Baekhyun wincing as he danced flashed in his mind’s eye. 

“I’m so, so sorry. I fucked up so bad. If you could talk right now, you’d be yelling at me for being such a Gryffindor. I didn’t think, I just charged him. That was so stupid, I know.” 

A stabbing pain made him fall back into his pillows. He slipped his thumb under Baekhyun’s hand, loving the feel of Baekhyun’s small hand dwarfed by his own.

“We survived the 72 hours! Does that mean that we can be in a relationship now? You have to wake up for that though, Baek. And Yixing and Dae are so sappy. If you die on me, who’s going to make fun of them to their faces? I just don’t have your gift for scathing one-liners. But I’ll never admit that to you when you’re awake.”

For the next thirty minutes or so he prattled on. He knew his presence wouldn’t change Baekhyun’s fate, they weren’t mates so it didn’t matter. They weren’t even properly dating. But it soothed Chanyeol to hear the quiet steady breaths beside him. After a while, he began to run thin on new reasons for Baekhyun to come back to them. There was one he knew would actually mean something though. He had to voice it now. 

“I promise if you wake up, I’ll see a Mind Healer. I mean, I need one anyway, but I promise if you fight this off I’ll go every single day.”

The hand beneath his gently wrapped around his thumb. Chanyeol screamed shrilly.

“Every day is a bit excessive Park. Not even you need that much counseling. But… you’ll see one? If I stop pretending to sleep?”

“What the fuck, Baekhyun?”

From out in the hallway he heard stifled laughter. 

“How long have you lot been out there?” He called. He’d said some really personal things. He started trying to decide the order in which to Obliviate them.

Baekhyun squeezed his hand. “Don’t worry, I told them to bugger off until they knew I stopped faking it. I’m sure your reaction could be heard from Hogwarts. Very touching stuff, by the way.”

Jongdae, Yixing, Sehun, Kyungsoo, and Jongin filed back in.

“Jongdae, can you prop me up so I can flip my boyfriend the bird?”

“What happened to asking me out with flowers and hand-sorted Bertie Bott’s Beans?”

“Your awful sense of humor lost you romance rights for the next week. I’m not waiting that long to call you mine.”

“Aww!” Yixing cooed.

Sehun mimed retching and Kyungsoo dropped Jongin on one of the empty beds lining the walls. 

“Ow!” Jongin whined. Pouting up at Kyungsoo. 

“Hey, what happened to the Unspeakables?” Baekhyun asked. 

“Oh, they had some work emergency or something. What kind of emergency could The Department of Mysteries even have?” Sehun mused. “Like, _oh no, time is still linear and also non-linear! The horrors!”_

Chanyeol smiled. He flipped his hand so he could stroke his thumb along the back of Baekhyun’s hand. He could get used to this. A bigger group of friends, easy intimacy with his boyfriend.

The Healer came back in with a tray full of potions. Baekhyun wrinkled his nose, but dutifully swallowed what they gave him.

“We sure this is Baekhyun? He’s too obedient.” He quipped.

The Healer let out a short laugh. “He swore on your comfortable recovery that he’d behave himself if I helped with that sophomoric stunt.”

“Ah, right, that tracks.” Chanyeol said nodding. “Wait, that means you’re fun!”

The room burst into suppressed giggles. The Healer pressed their lips into a thin line, looking to the ceiling as if begging for patience. 

“Through your atrocious track record and countless accidents, I have grown… tolerant of you lot.”

Chanyeol beamed at them. “Hey, what’s your name? If we’re going to be friends, I need to know your name.”

They raised an eyebrow. “We are _not_ friends Auror Park. But my name is Kasey. You may only use it when you’re here of your own volition, not when you’re here due to injury. You will still call me Healer Thomas when you’re here due to your stupidity or chivalry.”

“But I’ve never called you Healer Thomas.” They laughed, a short, surprised thing. Chanyeol counted it as a win. 

The sound of feet pounding down the hall reached them. Everyone turned towards the door— some expectantly, others warily. Jongin was asleep.

“Oh really.” The Healer huffed. 

They marched towards the door, no doubt with a reprimand on their lips for whoever was tactless enough to disturb the silent floor. Before they could get there, Minseok skidded into the room panting. 

“Brook’s escaped.” He announced, chest heaving. Chanyeol felt the blood drain from his face. “No clue how. Resurrection Stone—” he doubled over and placed his hands on his knees, “—missing.”

Baekhyun crushed Chanyeol’s hand in his sudden grip. “So that’s it then.” He breathed. “He has all three Hallows.”

**Author's Note:**

> LEAVE A COMMENT OR KUDOS IF YOU WANT TO READ WHAT HAPPENS NEXT! 
> 
> Originally, in my mind this was an okay place to end- with everyone in the hospital and Brook behind bars. But as I got close, that felt too easy. I also knew I wasn't going to be able to get a smut scene in, so I was already planning to continue this to an extent. Now, in my mind, this has the potential to be the beginning of a series. So yeah. Please please let me know if you're interested in a continuation.
> 
> I use HP book canon. When I was trying to name my centaur, my mind went to the Peverells. Based on the order the Hallows and siblings are respectively named, I think it was Cadmus who was gifted the Resurrection Stone.
> 
> I did not mean for this to so closely echo The Great Game episode from the 2010 Sherlock, but here we are. Brook is definitely inspired by Moriarty though. Did any Sherlock fans catch that? There are a few other allusions in there. 
> 
> Again- comments make me so unbelievably happy. Please take moment to leave one. Key smashes are more than welcome. I just like hearing from you.


End file.
